


Spread My Wings

by lpofdestiny



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: American Guardian, American Miraculous AU, Companion Piece, F/M, Gen, Hop To It, Swan Miraculous, Trilogy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-14
Updated: 2019-06-14
Packaged: 2020-04-08 08:19:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 50,614
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19103296
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lpofdestiny/pseuds/lpofdestiny
Summary: A companion piece toHop To It, an American Miraculous AU. The story of the Guardian.**SPOILERS IF YOU HAVEN'T READ "HOP TO IT" THROUGH CHAPTER 17**





	1. Swan Princess

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you are reading this without having read through Chapter 17 of Hop To It, then (and I cannot stress this enough) *SPOILERS* You have been warned.
> 
> Surprise! I basically wrote a companion novella to Hop To It. Not necessary to understanding Hop To It if you want to skip it, but it does explore several characters, so if you wanted to know more about Evelynn and Julius Ende, Howard Jenson, Dr. Anita Blaylock, or Diego's family, Spread My Wings is for you! Please enjoy ^_^

Evelynn peered through the colonnades and across the lap pool and spa to the ocean. It was calm today, a mirror of the cloudless sky above as it stretched to greet it on the horizon. The air was still and would’ve been stifling if not for a pair of elegant fans overhead. They worked in tandem to keep the covered patio cool.  
  
The ice in her grandfather’s glass clinked together and Evelynn caught him appraising her over its rim.  
  
“I know what you’re thinking,” he said.  
  
Evelynn rolled her eyes good-naturedly. When she was younger, she used to believe her grandfather could read minds. At least, it seemed like he did. He spoke in such a self-assured manner that you couldn’t help but think he could, but with age came understanding. Evelynn’s grandfather was the most intelligent man she knew and could pick up on the most imperceptible of social cues, but he was not a mind-reader. He had his blind spots. And she knew she was one of them.  
  
“Do you, now?” she asked. She refused to look at him, but a playful smile danced on the edge of her lips.  
  
“You’re thinking about the future.”  
  
“I’m graduating soon. Of course I’m thinking about the future.”  
  
“Then I was right.”  
  
“It was a well-educated guess that turned out to be right.” Evelynn finally made eye contact. Her eyes were carbon copies of her dad’s, an almost unnatural shade of blue, and she knew they always made her grandfather smile, albeit sadly. “But I’m thinking of a lot of other things too.”  
  
Evelynn had friends, classes, exams, a bad grade she was in the process of refuting, tennis, a part-time job at student health, a boy she couldn’t quite figure out, some drama that had nothing to do with her and really should’ve been resolved before Spring Break—but the future was always there, lurking. It was like the ocean, in a way—constant, stretching on endlessly for as far as the eye could see.  
  
“You should travel for a year or two, see the world,” her grandfather suggested. “I could go with you or you could go by yourself…though I insist you take Ben. I can always hire somebody else for me.” Ben was her grandfather’s bodyguard. “I think it would be a very valuable and rewarding experience for you.”  
  
Evelynn knew she shouldn’t be surprised, but was still caught off-guard. “Grandpa, are you crazy!? No!”  
  
“What? You have the money.”  
  
“ _You_ have the money.”  
  
“I told you, whatever is in your bank account is yours.”  
  
Evelynn blew her hair out of her face. She didn’t like to think about her bank account. Too many numbers she hadn’t earned. “Grandpa, we’ve talked about this.”  
  
“It’s very commendable of you to want to make your own way,” her grandfather said quickly, patting her on the knee. He then leaned back as Sofia and Yolanda cleared the table of their lunch. “But I think that you shouldn’t pass up an opportunity to—”  
  
“Thank you,” Evelynn told the women as she handed them her plate and glass. They nodded curtly and scurried away like always, but she shouted after them. “And tell Masahiko he did an excellent job! The tuna roles were fantastic.”  
  
Her grandfather cleared his throat, acting as if he had not been interrupted. “As I was saying, not a lot of young women your age have the resources to travel, so you should take advantage of the opportunities afforded to you.”  
  
“Or, I could get a job as a nurse somewhere and save up money to go on a one week vacation once a year like a normal person.”  
  
The weathered lines in Evelynn’s grandfather’s face deepened as he frowned, but Evelynn pretended she didn’t see, returning her gaze to the ocean. He had never understood her need for normalcy. To him, she was selling herself short and throwing away opportunities. To her, she was seeking solid ground after her life was uprooted eleven years ago. Money, notoriety, even power—they weren’t any good to her. But who was she kidding? Her grandfather was a secretive billionaire, her current residence was the Beverly Hilton at his insistence, and he had given her a Maserati Spyder for her birthday this year, even if she refused to drive it.  
  
She was not normal.  
  
And she never would be.    
  
A single blink was all it took. Everything vanished from sight and Evelynn found herself weightless, maybe even without a body, floating in a silent, dark abyss. Before her eyes were a pair of square gold cufflinks. They screamed ’70s, with their basket-weave patterned faces and twisted rope design posts. They had dulled with time and lack of use, but then they were hit by a violet light and transformed. Now the cufflinks were a shimmering white gold, with five of the squares on the faces replaced with little amethysts. They faded into diamonds one by one before expelling the purple light and changing back to the way they were. Evelynn seemed to observe the cufflinks from multiple angles and distances as this happened, all at the same time. And the exact time and date was marked off in her head: **Saturday, March 31, 2001, 1:05:34 PM PDT**.  
  
And then she was sucked back to reality, gasping for air. She felt like she had been squeezed through a hose.  
  
Her grandfather was up and out of his chair, his age seemingly forgotten as he kneeled next to her and grabbed her forearm.  
   
“Evelynn! What is it? What’s wrong?”  
  
Seeing his watery eyes brimming with terror, Evelynn tried to take back control of herself, slowing her breathing until it was quiet and even. “I’m okay, I’m okay…” She stood but swayed dangerously until her grandfather steadied her. “I think I need to lie down.”  
  
“Is it a panic attack? I can call the doctor—”  
  
“No. I just need to…Please just let me…” Together, they shuffled towards the French doors. Whatever had happened hadn’t hurt, but exhaustion seeped into Evelynn’s bones as if the weight of the world was suddenly resting on her shoulders. “I’ll feel better after a nap.”  
  
Her grandfather looked up at Yolanda, who hovered awkwardly in the doorway to the formal living room, feather duster in hand. “Don’t just stand there! Go turn down Evelynn’s bed.”  
  
“No-no-no-no.” Evelynn pushed off her grandfather and stumbled over to the gold velvet couch, pushing aside decorative pillows as she collapsed on it facedown. “Here is good. Just let me sleep.”  
  
A frustrated sigh issued forth from her grandfather. “…Fine,” he said after a moment. She heard him sweep over to an armchair and then felt the soft weight of a mink fur blanket on her back. “See to it that no one disturbs her,” he commanded Yolanda as the lights clicked off.

*   *   *

Evelynn awoke with a start much later, the sun low enough to see out the windows as it started its leisurely descent into the ocean. She sat for a moment, enjoying the stillness before stretching and padding off to find her grandfather.  
  
She felt like a new woman after her nap, her strange and startling vision already fading from memory. It was probably just stress. She guessed the future was freaking her out more than she previously thought.  
  
“Sofia?” she called through the cavernous kitchen, but it was dark.  
  
Her grandfather’s home was 24,000 square feet, or, as Evelynn liked to think about it, about fifteen times larger than any house had a right to be. As a child, she used to wander the halls with a growing sense of panic that she was the last person on earth until she stumbled across someone. Nowadays, she just popped into the surveillance room. It was a cozy little closet off the foyer filled with computer screens that showed most of the inside and the outside of the house. Marco and Ed, the night guards who worked the weekdays and weekends respectively, checked it every day when they got to work at 9:00 PM to make sure nothing was amiss.  
  
A quick scan of all the screens let Evelynn know her grandfather was in his office, meeting with Rodney.  
  
Evelynn grimaced. Suffice to say, she was not a fan of Rodney Cadel. Being the granddaughter of a billionaire made her highly attuned to brown-nosers, and Rodney was off the charts. Unfortunately, he was also loyal, intelligent, and good at his job, so her grandfather really didn’t care as long as things at Omega Labs, where Rodney was President, ran smoothly. Even as Evelynn watched, Rodney presented her grandfather with a small gift. He was always bringing over fine wine and cigars, even though her grandfather partook in neither. But this time he was presenting her grandfather with a jewelry box, which was different. Maybe he had finally gotten the hint and brought him something useful, like a watch. Curious, she watched Rodney lay it on the desk between them and open it.  
  
Evelynn blinked. Cufflinks. He had brought her grandfather cufflinks. And not just any cufflinks, but the same exact ones from her vision. She tried to reason that it was impossible for her to know that, that the footage was black-and-white and grainy, but it was a lie. She knew.  
  
She took off for the other end of the house, but then slowed to a casual walk as she turned the corner. At the end of the hall were a pair of mahogany doors that sectioned off her grandfather’s office from the rest of the house. Evelynn was surprised to see them guarded by a brawny figure in a smart suit.  
  
“Hey, Ev,” Ben said softly as she approached, his tough guy persona melting. “Heard you weren’t feeling well. Are you looking for Mr. Ende?”  
  
Ben had been Evelynn’s first crush. Her chest burned at the thought now, but when she had been a lonely thirteen-year-old girl and her grandfather hired an Adonis of a former Marine to be his new bodyguard, it didn’t take long for her to start writing ‘Mrs. Benjamin Commack’ in her diary. The fact that they were fifteen years apart and he was engaged to his high school sweetheart did not deter her. He treated her like a normal person instead of his boss’s granddaughter and always cheered her up when she was feeling down. But then Garret Wyndam Price III started passing notes to her in class and Ben was promptly forgotten. Now Evelynn was godmother to Ben’s youngest daughter Lucy.  
  
“Yeah, I need to—” started Evelynn, reaching for the doorknob, but Ben adjusted his weight to block her way.  
  
“Sorry, Ev. Mr. Ende was pretty clear about not wanting to be bothered.”  
  
“But…” Evelynn felt adrift in confusion. Something like this had never happened before. The door to her grandfather’s office didn’t even have a lock on it. “C’mon, Ben. What’s the big deal?” She raised her voice. “Grandpa! I’m up!”  
  
Ben gave her a look that read, _Did you have to do that?_ but said nothing.  
  
“Just a minute!” her grandfather answered, so she waited.  
  
The heavy oak door opened with a creak and Ben moved out of the way. Evelynn’s grandfather and Rodney crowded out into the hall.  
  
“You seem better!” her grandfather said, putting an arm around her shoulders and giving her a squeeze. His face was beaming and she suspected it was more than just her improved health.  
  
“Miss Ende, always a delight,” said Rodney, eagerly taking up Evelynn’s hand as if she were a princess. She escaped his grasp thanks to his sweaty palms. “Your grandfather mentioned you were home on Spring Break. When do you head back?”  
  
“Tonight. Classes start up again on Monday, but I thought I’d give myself a day.”  
  
“I was just seeing Dr. Cadel out,” said her grandfather quickly. He very well knew her feelings on Rodney. “Did you need something, my dear?”  
  
Evelynn glanced over Rodney’s shoulder into the office, surreptitiously trying to see if the cufflinks were still on the desk. Her grandfather caught it and turned to look as well.  
  
“Oh, your computer?” he surmised.  
  
Evelynn latched on to the lie and nodded. Her laptop was charging on an armchair, a long cord connecting it to the only printer in the house. Her grandfather had bought her one, of course, but it was at school.  
  
“Go ahead,” her grandfather said, putting a hand to her back and gently pushing her towards the office. He turned to his subordinate. “I’ll see you out, Rod.”  
  
Evelynn waited until her grandfather, Rodney, and Ben were out of sight before speed walking into the office. The desk was bare expect for the computer and a phone. She opened a couple of drawers before noticing the panel, on which hung an original Mondrian and guarded her grandfather’s safe, was ajar. She contemplated this for a moment before pushing the wall closed and going over to her laptop. Now was not the time to be snooping around. Her grandfather would be back any minute.  
  
Sure enough, she heard him whistling Camptown Races as he made his way back down the hallway. He leaned against the doorframe and watched Evelynn on her laptop, wistful and content.  
  
“You’re in a good mood,” she observed. “What did the bootlicker want?”  
  
“Be nice,” her grandfather warned. “He came by to tell me there was a breakthrough at the lab with Project Lionheart.”  
  
Evelynn’s eyes lit up. Her grandfather owned lot of businesses, but Omega Labs had been weighing on his mind a lot lately. The labs were a private defense contractor, and their government liaisons had been disappointed with Project Lionheart’s lack of progress for a long time now. They kept on threatening to shut it down, which would put those working on it out of a job. Now it sounded like those scientists would be safe. “That’s great!”  
  
“Why don’t we celebrate?” Her grandfather pulled out his ancient pocket watch, a gift from his own grandfather, to check the time. “How does the club sound?”  
  
Evelynn chewed her lower lip. The club’s barrel-cut wet-aged steak fillets cut like butter and made her mouth water, but it was awkward being the only woman allowed at a men’s only social club. She was an exception due to her grandfather’s standing as a founding member, but she had to adhere to the dress code like everyone else and wear a dress shirt with a club jacket and tie. Every year, when she went to the club’s tailor for a new jacket, he would comment that she was his only female client. It showed. Her jacket always ended up as ill-fitting as a thrift shop find. It had been cute when she was younger. Not so much now.  
  
But Evelynn knew that going to the club was really the only time her grandfather was social. Looking at his face, she found herself unable to say no.  
  
“Sounds wonderful!” she said. “Let me go change and we can head out.”

*   *   *

Evelynn slammed the trunk of her car, and then again when it didn’t shut. Then a third time, the latch finally catching. Her grandfather watched with a quirked eyebrow. They had argued about the car before, a 1991 Ford Taurus the color of cheap champagne, but once Evelynn had her mind set, there was no changing it. She wanted a car that she had paid for with money she had earned and nothing else.  
  
“I think that’s everything,” Evelynn said as she checked off her packing list in her mind—suitcase full of freshly laundered clothes, toiletries, crockpot, books for the new quarter…  
  
“It’s pretty late. Are you sure you don’t want to spend the night and leave in the morning?” her grandfather asked, looking hopeful.  
  
They had stayed at the club far longer than Evelynn expected, to the point where she rightfully got suspicious. Now it was almost 10:00 PM and her grandfather’s motives were as clear as day.  
  
Evelynn laughed, a wheezy bray that startled most people, and kissed her grandfather on the cheek. “I’ll be fine. It’s only an hour and a half drive.”  
  
“Can you blame an old man for trying?” he wondered, wrapping her up in his arms, lips brushing her forehead.  
  
And then is happened again. One moment, Evelynn was hugging her grandfather, feeling his bones beneath his skin and wondering when he got so skinny, and the next she was surrounded by nothingness, _was_ nothingness. She fully expected to see the cufflinks again, but they had been replaced by a silver watch.  
  
Unlike the cufflinks, the watch had a timeless design, a simple white face with tick marks instead of numbers. The strap was a soft, light brown leather. It looked like new, the silver untarnished, which was confirmed by the date engraved on the back: 7-24-1999. Beneath it in minuscule words was written: “Between the Earth and the sky above, nothing can match a grandmother’s love.” It was soon enveloped in a white light though and transformed. The engraving vanished, the strap turned white, and the clock face changed to a countdown of one through five with the hour hand completely absent. The minute hand counted down the five minutes before the watch reverted back in a flash of light. The exact time and date was **Saturday, March 31, 2001, 9:54:11 PM PDT**.  
  
This time Evelynn was prepared for her return to reality. It was jarring, but she gripped her grandfather harder and focused on keeping her breathing in check. Whatever was happening to her, she had to keep it from him. The last thing she wanted was for him to worry. Despite her best efforts though, he noticed something was amiss and pulled away.  
  
“Evelynn…?” he said, his eyes searching hers, but he was thankfully distracted by his Blackberry ringing on his belt clip. Evelynn glanced at the screen to see who it was before rolling her eyes. Of course. Bootlicker.  
  
Evelynn’s grandfather held up a finger to show he wasn’t finished with Evelynn as he answered his phone. “Rod, what—” he started, an edge to his voice. He normally didn’t accept calls this late at night unless it was an emergency. Rodney cut him off though, his words a harried burble. Evelynn’s grandfather listened in wide-eyed shock, stooping forward. He stopped himself by putting a hand on his knee. “An accident…? What do you mean, an acc—?” Whatever Rodney said next caused her grandfather to transform like the jewelry in Evelynn’s visions. He straightened his back, his countenance darkened, and any trace of Evelynn’s loving grandfather was gone, replaced by the shrewd business magnate. “Try to hold them off for as long as you can. I will be right there,” he said, already rushing across the sprinkler-soaked lawn to the closest garage.  
  
“Grandpa?” Evelynn called after him uncertainly as he punched in the code. The garage door sprung to life, screeching like a pterodactyl as it lifted to reveal a sleek black sports car. Evelynn didn’t recognize it, not that she was surprised. Her grandfather bought and sold his vehicles so often that it wasn’t worth keeping track.  
  
“I have to go,” he explained. “There was an accident at Omega Labs.”  
  
“Oh my God! Was anyone hurt?”  
  
But her grandfather was distracted. “Call me when you get back to school.”  
  
He jumped into the car and peeled out, the front gate barely opening in time to let him pass. Ed poked his head out of the guardhouse to watch the taillights recede down Riviera Drive.  
  
“What was that all about?” he called out to Evelynn, but she shrugged. “You heading out too? Should I lock up?”  
  
Only then did Evelynn realize her laptop was still in the office. “In a bit! I forgot something!”  
  
Heading back into the house, Evelynn crossed the foyer only to pause as she passed by the surveillance room. The cufflinks…now a watch…what was happening to her? Was she seeing visions of the future? Was she suffering from some sort of neurological disease complete with visual hallucinations? She felt that if she could just examine the cufflinks, everything would make more sense. She continued on since she had to head to her grandfather’s office anyway, but the walk took on a different tone. As she glanced at all the cameras as she passed, the old spy game she used to play when she first moved in started coming back to her. She would try to get from one part of the house to the other without being seen, then ask Herb (the night guard before Marco) or Ed if they had seen her. Sometimes she was successful. Other times, it was impossible.  
  
Other than the three-story chandelier in the foyer, which was on a timer, the rest of the mansion was dark and empty. Everyone had gone for the day. Even though it was her home too, Evelynn felt like she was trespassing and half expected an alarm to go off the instant she entered her grandfather’s office. Only silence met her though. She couldn’t even hear her footsteps, the rug was so plush.  
  
The white squares of the Mondrian seemed to glow in the moonlight, as did the power on her laptop. Life was full of choices, Evelynn knew, but this one seemed life-defining.  
  
She chose the Mondrain.  
  
Evelynn put a hand beneath the priceless painting and pushed. The panel popped open and swung out, revealing her grandfather’s expensive record collection and a mid-sized electronic safe.  
  
Evelynn once pointed out how cliché it was that her grandfather had a safe behind a painting, but he asked her what the point of having money was if he couldn’t have a little fun every now and then. His fun touches were all over the house, including a tap at the bar that poured Arnold Palmers and a secret passage behind one of the fireplaces that led to a reading nook. He let her discover all these secrets on her own and she still wasn’t convinced she found them all, but the safe had been her first major discovery.  
  
“What’s the code?” young Evelynn had asked him when he caught her trying to crack it with a stethoscope. She had gone as a doctor that year for Halloween.  
  
“You know I can’t tell you that.”  
  
“Wellllllllll….can you tell me how many numbers it is?”  
  
“Eight.”  
  
“Only eight? I’ll figure it out.”  
  
“Are you so sure, my dear? With eight numbers, there are…” He did a bit of mental math. “40,320 possibilities.”  
  
“What!?”  
  
But if Evelynn’s grandfather had taught her anything over the years, it was that people were predictable, even someone like her grandfather. He was forgetful, so all the codes around the house were dates of personal significance to him. They weren’t obvious ones, like birthdays and wedding anniversaries, but ones only he would know. The garage code was the 0513 because May 13th was the day he first saw Evelynn’s grandma at a dance hall. The gate code, 122477, was her parents’ engagement. The eight numbers to open the safe could very well be a date. She tried a few but stopped when she realized they were all too obvious. Which date would be ingrained in her grandfather’s head forever that few people would know about?  
  
It came to Evelynn suddenly, in a stroke of inspiration. 1-0-2-0-1-9-9-1. It was burned into her memory as well.  
  
The lock unclicked and the heavy door popped open. Inside, sitting among stacks of money and an ornate box she knew was filled with her grandma’s old jewelry, was the little black velvet jewelry box she had seen on the security camera. Hands shaking, Evelynn took it and opened it up. There, punched through a velvet backer board, were the slightly garish cufflinks.  
  
Evelynn pulled one out and held it up to the moonlight. Her grandfather had an impressive collection of cufflinks, a whole drawer of them to choose from when going to the club or the rare gala, and they were all nicer than this pair. Yet, her grandfather had squirreled these ones away in his safe AND she had a vision about them. Why? Pieces of the puzzle began to arrange themselves in Evelynn’s head. Her grandfather’s good mood…Rodney bringing news about a breakthrough with Project Lionheart…  
  
Were these cufflinks Project Lionheart?  
  
It would all make sense. The only problem was, Evelynn had no clue what Project Lionheart was or what it did or why Rodney would remove Project Lionheart from the lab (if that were the case). As far as she could tell, there was nothing out of the ordinary about the cufflinks. They had transformed in her vision though—normal cufflinks did not do that. Somehow, she had to trigger their transformation.  
  
 _Maybe by wearing them?_ she thought.  
  
Though she had ditched her jacket as soon as they returned from the club, she was still wearing her dress shirt with the sleeves rolled up, ironically so she wouldn’t have to wear cufflinks. She yanked them down now as she struggled to remove the other cufflink, accidentally dropping the box in the process. It smacked the wood just next to the rug, the cufflink still attached to the backer board flying out and skittering across the floor. Evelynn cringed even though she knew no one else was home. She knelt and gathered the pieces up, noticing something strange in the process.  
  
The bottom of the inside of the jewelry box had been knocked askew.  
  
“What…?” she reflexively whispered to herself upon discovering the false bottom. She peeled it away to find what looked to be a black SIM card underneath. She examined the electronic closely. She couldn’t tell for sure, but she suspected it was some kind of listening device. But who put it there? And why?  
  
Evelynn turned her attention back to the cufflinks. They were the crux of this mystery. The sooner she figured out their importance, the more sense everything would make, she was sure of it. So she fitted them through the buttonholes in her cuffs.  
  
The cufflinks turned warm when resting against her skin, then surprised her by producing purple beams of light. Evelynn jerked her arms away, but no matter where she moved them, the beams still crossed in the same spot, forming a sphere two feet in front of her face. When it reached about the size of a small watermelon, they stopped emitting light and the sphere faded, leaving a bright-eyed but bedraggled little creature behind. It was violet in color, with a tiny body and a bulbous head. Its eyes were black, but with gray sclera, and it had a tiny black beak. On its back was an explosion of feathers, some fluffy, some a single string, that curled back to a point that almost touched its back. It self-consciously brushed it down, revealing they were actually two feathered tails that wilted to either side when it noticed Evelynn staring at it. It swallowed, Adam’s apple bobbing.  
  
“W-who are you?” it said with a slightly nasally voice. “I-identity yourself!  
  
It was such a simple question, but it opened the world to Evelynn in an untold way. Her synapses fired like a Gatling gun, sparklers before her eyes, filling her brain with knowledge. The past, present, and future converged upon her and she was swept away in a story with no beginning and no end. Kwami. Miraculous. Guardian. The words echoed and filtered down, took on a life of their own, died and were reborn. Reality tied itself into a knot and then slipped through, the same yet forever altered by the experience. And Evelynn stood in the eye of this storm, suddenly knowing impossible things because, in this moment, the world had conspired to make her its protector.  
  
Floating before her was Ceeree the Swan Kwami, one of seven Kwami created at Omega Labs. He was made second, behind Mimmi and Wrekk, who were created at the same time, but he liked to act like he was the oldest. He was extremely Type A, highly-organized and motivated. Sometimes, he got a little overzealous with his helping. He was willing to do anything for others, good or bad, in hopes of getting them to like him. He gave his wielder the power of transmission, and the unique ability to read people’s intentions.  
  
“I’m the Guardian, Ceeree,” Evelynn said, knowing somewhere in the back of her mind that she should be surprised by this information, yet couldn’t bring herself to question what was true. “Your Guardian.”  
  
Ceeree gasped. He darted over and grabbed her cheek, shaking it as if it were a hand. “Of course!” he said, realization dawning on him. “Thank you, Gaurdian! Thank you for rescuing me from that…that villain!”  
  
“Villain?” Evelynn asked through the cheek pulling.  
  
“Yes!” Ceeree let her go and floated a little ways off, his back to her. “Dr. Cadel gave my Miraculous to him.” Evelynn took in a sharp intake of breath, realizing who the villain was, but the Kwami did not notice. “I read his intentions and they are evil. He plans to steal all of us and abuse our powers!”  
  
“No…” she whispered, struggling to comprehend why her grandfather would do something like that, but Ceeree took it differently.  
  
“I don’t want it to happen either! Please, let’s go to Omega Labs and rescue the other Kwami.”  
  
“Omega…? Oh…oh, no…” Evelynn felt an emptiness bleed into the pit of her stomach. Ceeree spun around and squinted at her as if trying to decipher a code. Evelynn almost didn’t have the heart to tell him. “There was an accident at the labs.”  
  
She watched the Swan Kwami molt a few feather, though it didn’t look like there were any less than before. “What kind of accident!? Are the others okay?”  
  
Evelynn looked down, embarrassed about not having any answers, but then her eye caught her cufflink. She stared at it, and then at the other. They were both glowing brightly. Despite not knowing why, she actually did. They had deemed the intentions she was currently reading as pure. But she wasn’t reading anyone’s intentions.  
  
No…wait…  
  
It dawned on Evelynn that the cufflinks were picking up on her. Her intentions were pure. So pure, in fact, that she knew herself to be a suitable Chosen One for Ceeree. Maybe not the one she would’ve picked, but there were no other options at the moment. She put her arms out to her sides like a T.  
  
“Let’s go find out,” she said. “Ceeree, spread my wings!”  
  
The Kwami all but dove at Evelynn’s right cufflink, his light changing them so they were in line with Evelynn’s vision. The process spiraled out from there as Evelynn crossed her arms and curled up into a ball in midair, feathers of light growing all over her body, encasing her in a cocoon. As soon as she was completely covered, she burst free in a shower of feathers, transformed.  
  
Evelynn now sported an ornate lilac gown with slightly puffed sleeves and a sweetheart neckline, the bodice bejeweled and embroidered with wing-like patterns. The full-bodied skirt split in the middle and swept back, allowing for mobility. Underneath, Evelynn wore lavender leggings and knee-high riding boots that matched her dress. Cascading down her back was a cape of violet feathers. It was attached to her white gloves and had a slit up the back—wings. The cufflinks were still in place, but the cuffs were attached to white gloves instead of a shirt. Glancing into the mirrored back of her grandfather’s curio cabinet, Evelynn also saw she wore a feathered masquerade mask in varying shades of purple, decorated with glitter, sequins, gems and pearls. Her hair was braided into a crown, a circlet of white gold inset with a single large amethyst sitting atop it.  
  
But Evelynn wasn’t finished yet. She held her arm out in front of her and the feathers of light that fluttered about the room began to concentrate in her hand. She grabbed the scepter they created before it could fall. It matched the cufflinks, an ornate white gold with a facsimile of a crown on top, encrusted with amethysts and diamonds. Wings came off either side like a caduceus. She stood on one leg with her scepter pointed towards the ceiling to end her completed transformation with a heroic pose.  
  
First things first, Evelynn had to cover up her theft of the Swan Miraculous. She shut the safe and then bashed it with her scepter a few times until it forcibly opened. Now it looked like someone had broken in with a sledgehammer. She then dumped out a wastepaper basket and filled it with the safe’s contents. She counted the money as it passed through her hands. There was about $100,000 in hundred dollar bills, or, as her grandfather would jokingly call it, pocket change. After a bit of thought, she left her grandma’s jewelry. A professional thief would know they would be too difficult to fence without getting caught.  
  
She examined the suspected bug one more time too, this time getting a read on it. Much to her relief, she found that it had been planted with good intentions. Satisfied, she put it back in the velvet jewelry box for safekeeping and adding it to the wastepaper basket. She would have to deal with that mystery later. Right now, the Kwami were in danger.  
  
The next stop was the surveillance room, where she deleted everything off the DVR. It was better to be safe than sorry.  
  
“Fold my wings,” she said, Ceeree getting spit out by the left cufflink. She swiped him from the air before he could fully recover and shoved him into the wastepaper basket. “Hide.”  
  
He nodded, working on smoothing his tails feathers again to make himself as small as possible.  
  
Evelynn strolled out of the house to her car with the waste paper basket weighing down her arms, feeling as if all the world had slipped off its axis. She hastily shoved everything into her trunk and drove off, her and Ed exchanging waves as she passed. She refused to meet his eye though, hot guilt flooding her veins.  
  
He was going to get fired when her grandfather got home.

*   *   *

Though Evelynn was familiar with Omega Labs, she had only visited the facility once, when she was sixteen and trying to log some driving hours. Almost all of her classmates had gotten their driver’s license by that point, but her grandfather actively prevented her from following suit. He kept telling her it was dangerous and she’d always have Jesús to drive her wherever she wanted to go. Then Jesús ended up in the hospital with a hernia. While he recovered, Evelynn was able to convince her grandfather to let her take his place.  
  
She had no idea where they were going at the time as her grandfather directed her to get off I-5 and head towards Pomona. They eventually ended up driving through Carbon Canyon to the San Bernardino county line, and then along a chain-link fence topped with barbed wire until they came across a gate. Her grandfather used a remote to open it.  
  
Once the gate was out of sight, a stately sign welcomed them to Omega Labs, the ‘O’ complete with little feet so it resembled the Greek letter. It stood outside of a checkpoint. Her grandfather handed her a visitor's pass to give to the guard—he liked to remain incognito when visiting his properties. After a thorough examination of the pass and a call to Rodney, the glaring guard allowed her to pass. Only then did Evelynn see a five-story horseshoe-shaped building, all concrete but with glass ends, butting up against a redwood forest.  
  
Evelynn walked through that forest now, the loamy dirt muffling her footsteps as she crept forward. The moon was a waxing crescent and the light pollution from Los Angeles waned a little this far out, giving her just enough darkness to fly in and land unseen. In the distance she heard the chopping of helicopter blades, the distant yells. Wisps of acidic smoke drifted between the trees in shades of black and burnt sienna. Evelynn found herself thankful for the night and her new Miraculous. Otherwise, the sense of déjà vu would’ve paralyzed her.  
  
A cough tickled Evelynn’s throat as she approached the labs, so she held her feathered cape to her nose and mouth. It magically filtered the air so she could breathe normally. Through the trees, she could just make out the beams of the helicopters’ searchlights as they illuminated mounds of debris and twisted metal. The sight made her heart speed up and she began to run.  
  
The forest ended abruptly and mass destruction met Evelynn’s eyes. Some of Omega Labs still stood, but it was a sagging, empty shell. The rest of it had collapsed into a crater, a pit of smoldering wreckage. At first glance, everything in the vicinity appeared to be covered in a light dusting of snow, but, on closer inspection, Evelynn realized it was a thin film of fire retardant chemicals dropped by the helicopters to extinguish the blaze.  
  
Despite the horrifying annihilation though, Evelynn sensed nothing.  
  
The relief washed over her. She would know if the Kwami were dead or nearby, so they must’ve escaped, either on their own or with the help of someone else. She instantly thought about the bug she had found, but then she felt a little niggle in her mind, like an itch she could not scratch. She concentrated on it before recognizing it for what it was.  
  
“Wrekk…” she whispered, her breath all but getting sucked out of her. She could feel him, prim and proper and polite. And in pain.  
  
Evelynn took a step towards the pit, but noticed her cufflinks glowing again. That was odd. She was alone and not focusing on anyone’s intentions. But then she heard someone coming, and fast. Without much time to think, she concealed herself behind a tree, catching a brief glimpse of a tan jacket marked with neon yellow stripes. A fireman was rushing passed.  
  
“Rodriguez!” came a distant shout. The firefighter stopped just on the other side of Evelynn’s tree, but there were heavy footsteps—someone was jogging with boots on. Another fireman caught up to the first. “What are…you doing? The general said…to hold position,” he wheezed.  
  
“I’m telling you, I saw something move!” insisted Rodriguez.  
  
“You heard the general—all the civilians were evacuated in time. It’s probably just some lab rat.”  
  
“Then it’s a lab rat I’m going to save.”  
  
“Manny…”  
  
Gloves came off, a jacket unzipped a little. There was a jingle of something metal.  
  
“Why do we wear these, Forsythe?”  
  
“I don’t—”  
  
“Why do we wear them?” Silence. Manny Rodriguez continued. “I joined the army to protect others. And if I think for one _second_ there might be someone or even something down there, I’m going to risk disobeying orders and personal injury to help because that is who I am. That is what I do.”  
  
Evelynn peered around the redwood to see Rodriguez suit back up, purposely leaving his dog tags out as if to make a point to his friend. He then flipped his face shield down, fit his breathing apparatus into his mouth, and gently slid into the pit. Forsythe watched him go, rubbing his face.  
  
“Christ…” he whispered.  
  
Evelynn looked up her tree and jumped, flying straight up to land on a high bough for a better view. Down below was a dizzying disarray of chunks of cement and rebar and shattered sparkling glass and blackened bits of who knew what. Rodriguez looked the part of an ant toiling away as he began to dig through the rubble, right where Evelynn knew Wrekk to be. She saw him stop, then wave at his friend, then gently cup his hands around something small and black.  
  
“You there! 12M!”  
  
Evelynn turned to see a line of soldiers, dressed in fatigues and armed with submachine guns, snake their way along the crater’s edge in the direction of Forsythe. Forsythe put his hands up and backed away.  
  
“What are you doing out here? Why did you leave your post?” demanded the solider leading the pack.  
  
Evelynn never heard Forsythe’s answer. Instead, everything went black as she was forcefully plunged into another vision. She hadn’t been expecting one, but she wasn’t shocked by what she saw. A pair of dog tags floating before her. The explosion left Wrekk severely weakened. He must have bonded with Rodriguez’s identification tags to recover.  
  
The dog tags were made from a simple aluminum alloy, oval in shape and imprinted with block letters and numbers:  
  
RODRIGUEZ MANUEL S  
545-30-6184  
B POSITIVE  
CATHOLIC  
  
Black energy rimmed with a noxious purple bubbled up and around them, replacing the chain with a purple collar, and the two tags turning into one. The current debossing changed to paw prints, five a piece. A sound like a typewriter key resonated and it lost paw print. It happened four more times until the tag was smooth and blank. It then reverted back to normal. The exact date and time was **Saturday, March 31, 2001, 11:12:41 PM PDT**.  
  
Coming out the vision as abruptly as she went in, Evelynn felt a tad woozy. She tried to brace herself against the trunk of her tree, but was suddenly blinded by a helicopter searchlight and missed. She fell, breaking branches on the way down before smacking into the ground. Groaning, she tried to get up only to find Forsythe’s dark face looming over her.  
  
“What the f—!?”  
  
But before he could even get the word out, the soldiers who had found him surrounded them, cocked their guns, and training them on Evelynn.  
  
“Get out of here!” the leader of the soldiers barked at Forsythe. The fireman didn’t need to be told twice. After giving Evelynn a wild-eyed glance, he put a hand to his helmet and hurried away.  
  
Evelynn had never found herself looking down the barrel of a gun before, much less eight of them, but she knew two things. The first was that she reflected bullets. The second was that she _reflected bullets_. Someone could easily get hit. So she rolled her scepter away and put her arms in the air. The squad swarmed, one sweeping up her weapon and two others roughly grabbing her arms and forcing them behind her back, escorting her away.

*   *   *

General Taggart’s intentions were dark and muddled. Not evil, per se, but not trustworthy by any stretch of the imagination. He had seen too much, been made too hard by his life as a career military man. Evelynn knew she would have to tread carefully. She sat, handcuffed to a chair in a hastily erected tent. It would be easy enough for her to break free and escape, but she wanted answers. Also, it wouldn’t be very polite.  
  
The General sat across from her, examining her with a critical gaze. He chewed on his toothpick in silence before his fingers sneaked up under his beret to scratch his bald head, some skin flakes falling on to the shoulder of his uniform. “I’m only going to ask this once,” he said, leaning forward into the yellow light of the camp lantern. “What did you do with the rest of Project Lionheart?”  
  
“Not a thing,” said Evelynn. She tilted her head at the sound of her voice. She had affected some sort of slightly British accent. A royal accent, as it were.  
  
Taggart slammed a big meaty hand down on the table, causing the lantern to jump. “Don’t play games with me, woman! We know you destroyed Omega Labs.”  
  
“Me!? Oh, I would never!”  
  
He ignored her. “Now, the real question is, did you destroy the rest of Project Lionheart or was the explosion to cover up your theft?”  
  
“If I committed either of those atrocities, do you think I would still be here an hour after the fact, waiting to be captured?”  
  
“I don’t know. Maybe you forgot something.”  
  
“I swear to you, I only just arrived.”  
  
“Really? Amazing how you have the Swan Miraculous, then.”  
  
Evelynn frowned at this information. So Rodney had removed the Swan Miraculous from Omega Labs without anyone’s knowledge, not that she was shocked. Still, it was no wonder Evelynn looked suspicious.  
  
“It honestly doesn’t matter to me how you got it,” Taggart decided when Evelynn didn’t say anything. “That Swan Miraculous is property of the United States government. Hand it over immediately.”  
  
“I assure you, it is safer with me,” she said.  
  
Movement outside the tent distracted them both and one of Taggart’s men whipped open the flap. The general refused to look at him, choosing instead to have his beady eyes bore into Evelynn’s skull, but that changed when the soldier leaned down and whispered something into his commanding officer’s ear. Taggart blinked rapidly as he stood. His height was a little below average, so not entirely imposing.  
  
“I’ll be back,” he warned.  
  
Evelynn didn’t have to wait long, nor did she have to guess about what was going on despite all the secrecy. She let Taggart know as much when he returned.  
  
“So one Kwami has been recovered, and turned Manuel Rodriguez’s dog tags into a Miraculous, hmm?” she asked.  
  
Taggart paused before taking his seat again. “Heightened hearing,” he said, more to himself than to her.  
  
“Oh, not with the Swan Miraculous,” said Evelynn pleasantly. “But I digress. I actually think Manuel is the perfect choice to wield the Dog Miraculous.”  
  
“What, you think we’re going to let an ordinary 12M use that thing?”  
  
“12M…” One of Taggart’s men had called Forsythe that designation too. “Is that, perchance, a firefighter?”  
  
“A military firefighter, part of United States Army Corps of Engineers. Someone like that isn’t going to be given the Dog Miraculous. It’s a weapon. It belongs in the hands of a highly-trained black ops specialist, not the random recruit who found it.”  
  
Evelynn’s calm and collected manner cracked a little at this news. She ruffled the feathers on her cape. “I am most confused. You will not find a better Chosen One than Manuel.”  
  
Taggart guffawed. “Chosen One? What a load of bullsh—”  
  
“But I have read his intentions, and they are pure! He is a good man.”  
  
“All the more reason to give it to someone else. A good man is a soft one. They aren’t going to make the hard choices needed out there on the battlefield.”  
  
It wasn’t a vision per say, but Evelynn still saw it—the Dog Miraculous going to someone like Taggart, someone with pitiless eyes who followed orders rather than did what was right because that was what they were conditioned to do. They would do great things, great and terrible things, maybe even to benefit the greater good, but what of the cost of a single soul? If she allowed the Dog Miraculous to fall into the hands of someone like that, then she wasn’t worthy of the mantle of Guardian. It was bad enough that the other Kwami were missing, but she refused to fail Wrekk in this way. Manuel had to keep him at all costs.  
  
“Do you know what powers the Swan Miraculous bestows, General?” Evelynn asked.  
  
“Transmission, the dossier said.”  
  
“Precisely. It is the movement of powers from its place of generation—me—to a location where it can be applied to perform useful work.” Evelynn gave her shoulders a little shake, a feather coming loose from her cape. It floated up and around, sort of hovering in front of her face. She pursed her lips and blew on it, turning it to hardened light. “Time for you to do something useful, General.”  
  
Taggart didn’t seem impressed and predictably tried to swat the feather away, but it flitted around his hand and was absorbed into his toothpick. His body went slack and Evelynn established her connection, a neon purple outline of two wings appearing in front of both their faces. She saw what he saw: Herself, calm and powerful. It gave her strength to do what needed to be done.  
  
“I have read your intentions and I know you are a military man who likes to get the job done, yet things keep getting in your way,” she said, voice like honey. She hated it. “How frustrating that must be! If you become my knight, you will blow everything away that keeps you from reaching your target and getting a bullseye. What do you say?”  
  
There was no hesitation in his voice. “Ready, aim, fire, your royal highness.”  
  
It was shocking to Evelynn just how easily the Swan Miraculous could be used for evil. All she had to do was knowingly gift powers to the wrong person. She had no intentions of allowing the General to use his superpowers though. She just needed to gain a little bit of control.  
  
In a whirlwind of white feather, Taggart was transformed into General Target. His skin was now a green camo and his black fatigues had been transformed into green military dress. All his medals were of different kinds of targets—dart, archery, clay pigeons, human silhouettes. He kept his beret, but it was now bright red with white concentric bands. His toothpick was now a dart, which he took out of his mouth and stuck in his cap.  
  
Before the General could make another move though, Evelynn took over. She had one motivator in her arsenal if her superheroes started to stray and it was this: pleasure was a powerful motivator. Whatever horrors the General had seen in service to his nation, whatever bitterness he harbored, whatever darkness he used to protect himself, Evelynn drowned it all out and replaced it with simple pleasure. General Target eyes slid out of focus and he smiled blissfully.  
  
And then Evelynn let go.  
  
Panic set it rather quickly as he scrambled over to her and knelt by her side. “Where’d it go?” he wondered, like a terrified child. “Bring it back! Please! I’ll do anything! Here.” He unlocked her handcuffs.  
  
“You know what you have to do,” she told him, gentle and sad as she stood up and curtsied. The feather she had just bestowed tumbled out of the dart as if it had been shook loose by a gust of wind, and General Target began to glow white. When it faded, he was back normal.  
  
Taggart stumbled back a few steps. He didn’t remember anything, Evelynn knew, but a psyche was a powerful thing. She silently bemoaned the fact that such a tactic would not work on everyone. True evil could not be redeemed. For someone like Taggart though, who once possessed pure intentions a long time ago, it was like restarting the core of his being.  
  
“General?” she prompted.  
  
He turned to her as if seeing her for the first time. His eyes traveled down to the chair Evelynn had previously been handcuffed to. “How did you…?” he said, breathless. Only then did Evelynn notice the wedding band he wore. She thought about Ben and Lucy and smiled. Maybe Taggart had a daughter too.  
  
“Thank you for releasing me,” said Evelynn.  
  
Taggart nodded, still a little fuzzy. “What were we talking about?”  
  
“The Dog Miraculous.”  
  
“That’s right…you want Rodriguez to keep it.”  
  
“Because he’s a good man with good intentions.”  
  
The General turned the thought over in his head before nodding, much to Evelynn’s relief. She honestly wasn't sure her little ploy was going to work. “I’ll see to it that he does. You know, he just put in to be an EOD Specialist—bomb disposal. I think that’s a good use for the Dog Kwami’s power of destruction.”  
  
“I agree,” said Evelynn with a smile. Two Kwami down, five more to go. _This Guardian business is easy_ , she thought as she sat back down. “Now, can you tell me what happened here? What caused this explosion?”  
  
The General launched into a story about receiving a call from Omega Labs’ Head of Security concerning a hydrogen containment breach, as well as all the computers going down. Even though security staff were kept in the dark about the nature of the work being done at the labs, the Head of Security rightly suspected foul play. After calling for an evacuation of all personnel, he called Taggart. An explosion was imminent by that point, so Taggart mobilized a team to clean up the aftermath and headed out.  
  
“So it was an inside job?” gathered Evelynn.  
  
“It seemed like it was at first, but doors were being accessed right up until the explosion. Someone was in there, but no body has been found and all employees have been accounted for. That’s why I suspected you. Er…no offense.”  
  
“None taken, General.”  
  
Wheels started to turn in Evelynn’s head. A Miraculous wielder such as herself would be able to survive an explosion, and a watch had been turned into a Miraculous…  
  
“May I have my scepter?” she wondered.  
  
“Hold on.”  
  
Taggert marched out of the tent and soon Evelynn heard the rumblings of a hushed argument. She wished she really did have enhanced hearing because she’d be interested to know what was being said. All she caught was the tail end.  
  
“But sir!”  
  
“I don’t want to have to repeat myself, soldier!” said the General. He appeared not long after and handed Evelynn back her scepter.  
  
“Your phone,” Evelynn told him. “I must be going, but allow me to leave a way for you to contact me.” She stood, twirling her scepter around her fingers as Taggart did as she instructed, producing a little Nokia. She tapped it with the crown of her scepter and there was a flash of light. Curious, Taggart looked at the screen.  
  
“Swan…Princess…?” he read.  
  
It was her goddaughter Lucy’s favorite movie at the moment, and it only made sense with the crown and the dress and the proper words. Evelynn lowered into another curtsy. “Pleased to make your acquaintance.”  
  
“There’s no number.”  
  
Evelynn pushed down the wings on her scepter. The top popped up, revealing a screen and some arrow keys. “Because this is not a phone. But I shall receive your call anyway.” She pushed her scepter closed with a snap and the wings popped back into place. “Please keep me updated on Manuel. I would very much like to meet him when he is ready.”  
  
“Understood.”  
  
Evelynn started to head for the back of the tent. Taggart didn’t stop her, but he did turn as she passed him. “Where are you going?”  
  
“The other Kwami are out there, somewhere. I must find them and keep them from harm.”  
  
She lifted the tent flap and looked to the sky, the stars faint and blurry. They reminded her of the lonely night she spent at child services, dreading the morning because she didn’t know what was going to happen to her. As far as she knew, she no longer had any family. Then a limo appeared shortly before dawn, packed with lawyers and an older man with thinning hair and watery, tired eyes. He was frantic. She watched him from the window as he banged on the front door. When he was finally admitted, he made a beeline straight for Evelynn and then stopped. Shaking, he kneeled before her and held her cheek, apologizing over and over again before enveloping her in a hug. She cried into his leather jacket because, even though she didn’t know who he was, she knew he had come to rescue her.  
  
When Evelynn thought of her grandfather, she used to think of that moment. Now, she could only think of Ceeree calling him a villain.  
  
“General?” she asked, a little tremor in her voice.  
  
“Yes?”  
  
“Do not trust anyone associated with Omega Labs, especially Rodney Cadel,” she said. The lump in her throat grew. She knew who else couldn’t be trusted, but she couldn’t bring herself to say his name.  
  
So she didn’t. She ended her sentence there and flew away, never looking back.

*   *   *

At half-past midnight in the deserted parking lot of the Irvine Walmart, Evelynn found herself having a panic attack in her car. Her heart pounded, her body shook, and her face was damp with sweat. She couldn’t breathe, even though all the windows were rolled down and the air outside was cool and dry. Ceeree flitted around her, offering unsolicited advice.  
  
“Close your eyes and breathe. Have you tried picturing your happy place? Maybe try some muscles exercises!”  
  
Evelynn ignored him as she wrenched open her glove compartment. Meineke receipts spilled out, littering the passenger seat as she dug through them. She finally came up with a small bottle of Xanax she swore she would never use. She dumped two pills into her hand and shoved them in her mouth, washing them down with a sip of warm water. Gripping the edges of her seat, she waited for them to take effect. It was like that time in middle school when her friends convinced her to ride the Gravitron at the fair when she really didn’t feel like it. She spent the whole time wishing it were over.  
  
“Don’t just sit here. You should get out and walk—”  
  
“Ceeree!” Evelynn hissed. “Not. Now.”  
  
The Kwami wilted and began to float sideways. “I’m only trying to help, Guardian,” he said meekly, but said nothing more.  
  
Twenty minutes passed and the panic ebbed away, but it was still ten minutes more before Evelynn felt well enough to hold a conversation.  
  
“Sorry about that,” she said, waving her hand as if she had simply sneezed instead of freaked out for a half hour. “Now what were you trying to say before?”  
  
“How come you warned the General about Dr. Cadel, but not about that other man?”  
  
Evelynn knew the panic would’ve returned if not for the Xanax. She felt the edges of it brush her conscience as she mentally prepared for what she knew she had to say next.  
  
“Because that other man…is my grandfather.”  
  
Ceeree molted again. “What.”  
  
“You have to understand, Ceeree,” said Evelynn quickly. “He raised me after my parents died. I don’t want anything bad to happen to him. I wish I could tell you why he is doing this, but I can’t. So I think the best thing I can do, for now, is to track down the rest of the Kwami and keep them out of his hands.”  
  
“Right. We should find Dr. Blaylock, then. She can help us.” Evelynn gave the Kwami a hard look that caused him to laugh nervously. “Have…have I not mentioned Dr. Blaylock…?”  
  
Evelynn shook her head “Who’s she?”  
  
“Only the best scientist working on Project Lionheart! Graduated from Mills College at the top of her class. Earned a PhD in Molecular Biology from Vanderbilt University, also at the top of her class. Carried out her postdoctoral studies with the one and only Professor Alfred Sturtevant at the California Institute of Technology. She technically wrote the textbook on cloning, but her manuscript got stolen. And it was through her tireless efforts that Caltech started admitting female undergraduates in 1970—though they always give credit to Ray Owen. She’s been up for the NAS Award in Molecular Biology, the Marjory Stephenson Prize, and the Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize. She didn’t win them because of politics, of course, but—”

“Ceeree!”  
  
“Ah! Right! She can’t hold a candle to you, wise Guardian.”  
  
“That’s not…” Evelynn felt like banging her head against her steering wheel. Of all the Kwami she could’ve gotten, it had to be the bootlicker. “So Dr. Blaylock made you,” she surmised.  
  
“Actually, Dr. Marczak says he did, but I have my doubts.” Ceeree floated down and patted one of Evelynn’s cufflinks. “Dr. Blaylock did help me bond with my Miraculous earlier today though—er, I mean yesterday. Saturday. We had to do it in secret, when no one else from the team was around.”  
  
“Why?”  
  
“She wanted to bring a personal effect into the lab for me to bond with, but she couldn’t get approval for it, so she ended up smuggling one in.”  
  
“The cufflinks.”  
  
“Right! Project Lionheart was going to be shut down and she was going to lose her job if she couldn’t create a Miraculous, so she was willing to take the risk. And it worked! As soon as I bonded with the cufflinks though, I was kind of trapped in them because I didn’t have a human host. Dr. Blaylock gave me to Dr. Cadel, who gave me to that—er…to your grandfather.”  
  
“Hmmm…”  
  
Evelynn’s thoughts raced back to the listening device she had found. No one else had the opportunity to bug the cufflinks except Dr. Blaylock. And if Dr. Blaylock heard her grandfather and Rodney talking, what would she think? What would she do? Would she take the Kwami, crash the computers, and blow up Omega Labs? Maybe she even had another Kwami bond with a Miraculous for her to use since she knew the trick.  
  
“Did Dr. Blaylock wear a watch?” Evelynn asked.  
  
“Personal effects weren’t allowed in the lab.”  
  
“Oh.” Still… “I’d like to talk to Dr. Blaylock. Where is she?”  
  
“Uh…” Ceeree scratched his head. “I don’t know.”  
  
Any energy Evelynn still had fled in that instant and she collapsed back into her seat with a groan of frustration. She just wanted to sleep. Maybe she would wake up to find this Guardian business had been all a dream. She’d never complain about expensive birthday gifts ever again.  
  
Ceeree honked and zipped over. “Guardian! Just because I don’t know where Dr. Blaylock is, doesn’t mean we can’t find her! You are the wielder of the Swan Miraculous now. You are great and good and powerful. If you need help, all you have to do is ask someone to help you.”  
  
Evelynn contemplated the Kwami’s words, gaining strength from them. How could she have forgotten? She wasn’t alone in this, and she never would be. A tentative smile graced her lips, and Ceeree beamed, radiating joy.  
  
Their little moment was ruined though when Evelynn’s phone rang. She pulled it from her purse and flipped it open, seeing a private number lit up red on the tiny screen.  
  
“It’s my grandfather,” she said, voice dead. Ceeree’s eyes widen and he looked from her to the phone and then back again. There was really no point in putting it off, so Evelynn took a deep breath, hit the pick-up button, and held her Samsung to her ear.  
  
She tried to be casual. “Hi, Grandpa! You’re calling pretty la—“  
  
“Where are you?” he demanded, voice rough.  
  
Evelynn paused, not sure on how to proceed. “I’m…back at school,” she lied. “Why?”  
  
“You didn’t call me like you usually do, and your computer’s still here. I was so worried.”  
  
Shoot. Her computer! “I forgot—Are you okay? What’s wrong?”  
  
Evelynn waited as her grandfather contemplated what to tell her. “There was a break-in at the house.”  
  
It was easier than Evelynn thought it would be to pretend to be shocked. It was almost as if her theft was committed by someone else.  
  
“Oh my God, Grandpa! Are you okay? Was anything taken?”  
  
“...the cash in the safe. I’m just glad it didn’t happen when you were in the house.”  
  
“You’re not having a very good night, are you?”  
  
“No.” His heavy sigh spoke volumes. “I’m not.”  
  
“The lab accident…”  
  
“Don’t worry, my dear. No one was hurt.”  
  
“That’s a relief.”  
  
Her grandfather was silent.  
  
“Do you want me to come home…?” Evelynn tried. “I need to get my computer anyway, so—”  
  
“That’s sweet of you to suggest, but no. I’ll send your computer to you first thing tomorrow. You get some sleep. Early to bed and early to rise will keep you healthy, wealthy, and wise.”  
  
“It’s one in the morning.”  
  
“Good night, Evelynn.”  
  
“Good night, Grandpa.” She paused, locking eyes with Ceeree as he hovered in front of her face. The poor thing looked so terrified, but then she saw herself mirrored in his eyes. He was only reacting to what he saw on her own face. “I love you,” she somehow managed to say, then hung up before her grandfather could repeat it back. She was afraid that, if she heard it, she would break.  
  
Evelynn’s grandfather, the one who had taken her in at the age of ten, who made sure she never wanted for anything, who loved her more than his own life, was evil. But it made sense, in some bizarre way. There had to be some reason why her dad changed his last name and told her that his parents were dead. When she asked her grandfather when she was a child what happened between them though, he made it all seem so normal.  
  
“He used to work for me, but we had a disagreement and he left.”  
  
“What was the fight about?”  
  
He had been reading her _Redwall_ in her new room to help her get to sleep. Everything was powder blue or silver or white. It was like living in the sky.  
  
Her grandfather put the book down and lowered his reading glasses.  
  
“To be successful in business, you have to take risks. Your father didn’t like the risks I was taking. Thought they would destroy everything we worked so hard to build, weren’t ethically sound. He tried to stop it. I reacted…poorly. So he changed his name and left, and I never saw him again. Didn't know he married your mom. Didn't even know they had you.” He looked down at his lap, his speech barely audible. “Not a day goes by that I wish I had listened to him, because then he’d still be here.”  
  
Evelynn’s vision blurred and she realized she was crying. Ceeree honked again and flew forward to wipe away her tears with his tails. He went from one side of her face to the other, back and forth, but the tears kept on coming, a never-ending surge. He realized it was hopeless and eventually gave up.  
  
“Why is he doing this, Ceeree?” she asked, begged.  
  
“I don’t know, Guardian.”  
  
“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”  
  
“You have nothing to be sorry for. We can’t choose our family.”  
  
“But I love him! How am I supposed to stop him?”  
  
“It’s like you said…we find my friends first, then we keep them away from him.”  
  
It was strange to hear her own plan echoed back to her. It couldn’t have been more than ten minutes ago, but her call with her grandfather had shaken her to her core. From now until the foreseeable future, any time she spent with him would be tainted with his intentions and her lies. It would be like a game of cat and mouse that the cat didn’t even know it was playing. It wouldn’t be easy, but she guessed she would just have to get used to it.  
  
Evelynn fumbled through her purse and found her car keys. She buckled up as she forced her car to sputter to life, wiping the last of her tears on the sleeve of her dress shirt, her cufflinks knocking against her chin.  
  
“Where are we going?” wondered Ceeree. Evelynn watched in disbelief and then amusement as the Kwami flew over and buckled himself in as well. He settled into the passenger seat, ready for the long haul. If he so much as touched the radio dial though, he was riding in the trunk. She knew he liked classical. Too bad, she wanted to hear Gorillaz.  
  
“I’ve gotta get back to college,” she explained as she checked her blind spots before backing out. She knew there were no other cars in the lot, but those errant shopping carts had a mind of their own.  
  
“What about finding Dr. Blaylock?”  
  
“We’ll find her. I just need to come up with someone who can help us find her first.” In her head, she was already running down a list of friends. The problem was, many people weren’t getting back to school until that afternoon, so that didn’t leave her with very many options. Good ones, anyway.  
  
Maybe the drive would help her think.


	2. Dox

The Beverly Hilton was an older hotel in need of maintenance, its former prestige like a faded photograph even though it still hosted the Golden Globes every year. Evelynn’s grandfather had not been there in a very long time and was disappointed when he and Evelynn toured it the summer after her freshman year. No more dorm-living for her. Her grandfather was insistent.  
  
“Merv has run this place into the ground,” he complained. He had half a mind to buy it and renovate the whole thing before its fiftieth anniversary, but he always said hotels were more trouble than they were worth. Evelynn was sure if she complained though, he would’ve jumped at the opportunity. Instead, she kept her mouth shut and ended up in the Presidential Suite with the accompanying Governor’s Suite. She and Libby jokingly called their home ‘Politics.’  
  
Evelynn stood on the balcony of it now, fiddling with the bug she had found hidden beneath the Swan Miraculous as she looked out over the grassy knolls and gnarled trees of the Los Angeles Country Club to the smoggy darkness beyond where the UCLA campus was hidden. Libby wouldn’t be back from her mission’s trip until midday, so she and Ceeree were alone.  
  
Evelynn closed her eyes and began to concentrate on the intentions of Libby’s ex-boyfriend, not thinking it would amount to much. She thought she’d give him a try though, knowing he hadn’t gone home for Spring Break and would no doubt still be awake, at his apartment, on his computer. Besides, his skillset was just what she needed.  
  
He had always come off as a self-righteous prick to Evelynn, but as she read his intentions, it dawned on her that he apparently didn’t act that way without reason. He wanted to defend those who couldn’t defend themselves. He wanted to stop bullies and set things right what once went wrong. With his computer, he could become the superhero he always aspired to be. He wasn’t looking for fame, but he did want to be respected. It was a constant source of frustration for him that he wasn’t, and it pushed him to prioritize hacking over things like school and relationships.  
  
Evelynn could see now that it had never been his intention to hurt Libby. It made her dislike him a little bit less…but just a little.  
  
“Your cufflinks are glowing nicely!” said Ceeree, perking up. “You found someone to help!”  
  
“I mean, I guess,” she told the Kwami, fighting back a yawn. “But I’m not psyched about it.”  
  
“Who is it?”  
  
“My roommate's ex, Howard Jenson.” Even though Evelynn was sure of her choice, she still wrinkled her nose. “He calls himself a Gray Hat, which I guess is like a hacker that breaks laws and stuff, but for good reasons? So his intentions are good. I bet he could trace that bug, and track down Dr. Blaylock.”  
  
“Howard the Hacker…” said Ceeree, tapping his chin. He perked up even more, which Evelynn thought to be impossible. He seemed to exist in a constant state of wide-eyed eagerness. “Sounds great, Guardian!”  
  
Evelynn sighed at the blind trust her Kwami was placing in her, even though her intentions were good. After all, so were Dr. Blaylock’s, and look where trusting her got Ceeree—in the hands of a man who wanted to misuse him. _In the hands of my grandfather_ , she was forced to remind herself. She could not distance herself from that fact, no matter how much she wanted to.  
  
“Let’s head out,” Evelynn said before she could yawn again. There was still so much to do before dawn. “Ceeree, spread my wings!”  
  
Once transformed, Evelynn twirled her scepter and preened her cape before launching into the air. She flew higher and higher, escaping the musty air of the city. She slowed to a stop to find Los Angeles spread out below her. It shimmered like a computer chip ribbed with orange light. Voids of black showed her where she needed to go—the golf course, the botanical gardens, the cemetery, the veteran’s park next to the VA. She reached the neighborhood of stucco block buildings behind it in five minutes flat.  
  
Evelynn had dropped Libby off at Howard’s place so many times that the route was etched in her memory, but it was different coming in from above. She was forced to land in an alley and run the rest of the way, passing by Dumpsters, parked cars, and utility poles. Finally she spotted the familiar water stain that marked his apartment. His gray Honda sat in the carport and, above, a window, open just a crack, flickered with blue light.  
  
Plucking a feather from her cape, Evelynn held it up to her mouth and blew on it, the violet turning to pure white light as she charged it with energy. It took flight, twisting and turning up through the window. Moments later, the link was established as the feather found its mark: Howard’s flash drive.  
  
“Greetings, Howard,” said Evelynn, wings of light appearing on either side of her face. She could see what he saw, but what was on his dual computer screens looked like nonsense to her, just a never-ending string of random numbers and letters in different boxes. “My name is Swan Princess. I have read your intentions and they are pure. Would you be willing to become my knight? I am in great need of a hacking hero such as yourself and can grant you super powers to supplement your skills. However, the choice is yours.”  
  
“Is…is this a trick or something?” came Howard’s voice. “Man, I gotta lay off the Red Bull.”  
  
“No trick. If you say yes, you will be transformed into the superhero Dox. If you say no, I will leave you in peace.”  
  
“Huh. Well, why not? Superhero me up.”  
  
Evelynn wasn’t sure about how she felt about Howard accepting her proposal so fast, but she allowed the process to take hold, a whirlwind of feathers transforming him in one fell swoop. Satisfied with her work, she flew up to his window and watched as Dox examined his new body. It was naturally very Tron-like, a black body suit with neon green line down his left side and a neon blue line running down the right. It covered him completely, but with an added Matrix-style leather trench coat and a Daft Punk helmet for the overkill. She found it amusing that he had also given himself abs. To be fair though, she had given herself shiner hair when she transformed, so she wasn’t one to talk.  
  
She rapped on the window gently with her scepter. Dox turned to her and put a hand to the side of his helmet, his visor flying open. His face remained surprisingly the same, though with the neon lines running up to his heterochromatic eyes—one green, one blue—which were more pronounced than ever. He bustled over to slide the window open the rest of the way, holding her hand as he helped her into the room. The act startled Evelynn, but she recovered quickly. This wasn’t Howard, after all. This was Dox, tech superhero extraordinaire whom she had created. Of course he was going to treat her well.  
  
As if to further drive home this point, Dox bowed, something Howard would never do, even if he met the Queen of England. He was too contrary.  
  
“Your highness,” Dox said.  
  
“Thank you for your assistance, Dox.” Evelynn closed the window behind her before holding up the bug. “What can you tell me about this?”  
  
Dox pinched the device between his thumb and his forefinger, closing his visor again to examine it. A blue and green computer curser appeared on one side of the black plastic and moved to the other as it scanned the device. Watching Dox use one of his powers, it was like a bell going off in Evelynn’s head and a word came to her mind so clear she swore she could almost see: [SCANNING](https://powerlisting.fandom.com/wiki/Scanning). That was the name of that ability, a gift from her.  
  
“This is some next gen stuff,” Dox said once he was finished, his voice electronically modified so it wouldn’t be muffled beneath his helmet. Up went the visor again, his voice returning to normal. “It’s called a Q-Bug. It’s a highly-sensitive wireless transmitter with no distance limits. There’s a SIM card inside—number three one zero dash zero zero three dash four eight two seven three nine four three eight two. You text your phone number to that SIM card number using your phone and it sends you back a number to call. You can call it whenever you want to listen through the Q-Bug in real time.”  
  
“Is it listening to us right now?”  
  
“No. It’s dead.” He shook it as if to demonstrate. Evelynn half-expected to hear it rattle. “The battery life isn’t very long. It’s its biggest drawback.”  
  
“I have reason to believe that a scientist by the name of Dr. Blaylock planted that Q-bug and was listening on the other end,” she explained as she strode over to Howard’s desk. The double screen set-up looked like it belonged on the set of a sci-fi movie. She yanked the flash drive out of the processor. Tron-lines had been added to it as well. She pocketed it. “However, I would like to be absolutely positive about this assumption before I locate her.” She turned back to Dox, hoping she didn’t look too frantic or pathetic. “Would you be willing to help me?”  
  
To answer, he closed his visor and held his hand out to her.  
  
In that moment, everything felt unreal, like some carefully constructed reality that was wearing thin. It was well past two in the morning by this point. Evelynn was standing in the messy room of a college boy, the floor littered with dirty clothes, the bed lumped high with a twisted mass of sheets and a plaid comforter. Posters of bikini-clad women and Nirvana CD covers were slapped up haphazardly on the peeling walls. There were empty cans of energy drinks and Mountain Dew on every available surface, and the smell of reheated pizza lingered in the air. Dox stood apart from this world though, lit by the light from Howard’s computer. He looked almost ethereal as he patiently waited for her to make a choice.  
  
Evelynn hesitated. What was she even doing? This was crazy. Insane. No one told her she was the Guardian. She just believed it. There was no reason for her to go in search of the other Kwami, to track down this Dr. Blaylock, to transform her roommate’s ex into a superhero. But even as she tried to talk herself out of it, she found herself reaching for Dox’s hand.  
  
The instant they touched, Dox’s Tron-lines turned violet. She flinched, not expecting it, but Dox didn’t seem to notice as he led her over to his computer and splayed his hand against the screens. Sparks of green and blue drew an outline around them as they seemingly flickered to black. Evelynn felt her breath grow short, and the world around her began to look as if it were being reflected in a funhouse mirror. She and Dox were dragged into the computer with magnetic force, or, rather downloaded as Dox transformed them into [DIGITAL FORMS](https://powerlisting.fandom.com/wiki/Digital_Form).  
  
At first Evelyn thought she was having another vision—she was weightless, everything was black—but she could see herself and felt Dox release her hand, his colors returning to blue and green out of the corner of her eye. She turned to him, her body going with, only to be stunned by what she saw floating behind him.  
  
It was a planet, but unlike any Evelynn had ever seen before. It was made up of prismatic ribbons in a myriad of different colors: cyan, emerald, dusty rose, vermillion, cerulean, taupe. They writhed and twisted and squirmed and coursed like veins filled with blood. White hot lights pockmarked certain area—cities, Evelynn wrongly assumed, until her mind caught up and she realized it was impossible for them to be in outer space, looking at an alien world.  
  
“That’s the Internet,” said Dox.  
  
Evelynn found herself unable to look away. “It’s beautiful.”  
  
“Everything looks beautiful from far away.”  
  
She looked to him, a question on her lips, but he was busy closing the portal behind them. Evelyn caught a glimpse of Howard’s bedroom before it went black, though the outline remained, glowing in the dark. On closer examination, Evelynn realized the glow was made up of a repeating string of the same nine numbers—an IP address. She tried to touch them, but her hand went right through.  
  
Dox snapped his fingers, summoning a ghostly apparition of a large cube. He placed the Q-Bug inside, where it bounced around until he pushed on one of the corners, shrinking the cube down until it encased the device perfectly. He then tapped it. Ten glowing green numbers appeared above it, changing rapidly like a digital slot machine. The first number stopped on a three.  
  
“A phone number?” Evelynn guessed as two more numbers were found in quick succession.  
  
“We can use it to find the owner,” explained Dox.  
  
While Dox did his work, Evelynn looked around. She hadn’t noticed at first, but they were floating in a sphere of light, maybe about twenty feet across, with the portal as its nucleus. Well, maybe light wasn’t the right word, but the space was certainly lighter than the blackness that surrounded it. Evelynn floated to the edge to examine it better.  
  
A zipper noise sounded behind her and Evelynn felt something wrap around her waist and yank her back. She looked over her shoulder to see Dox, the thick green Tron-line partially gone from his suit as he used it as a form of [TENTACLE EXTENSION](https://powerlisting.fandom.com/wiki/Tentacle_Extension). He reeled her back in.  
  
“I’d be careful if I were you, your highness,” he said, releasing her. “The security is for our own protection.”  
  
There was a ping and they both looked up. The phone number was complete. Dox floated up and slapped it.  
  
At first Evelynn thought they were moving towards the Internet, but they remained surrounded by their security bubble with the portal. It dawned on her that they were completely stationary as the Internet flew at them thanks to Dox’s [INTERNET MANIPULATION](https://powerlisting.fandom.com/wiki/Internet_Manipulation). As it grew larger, she noticed it was rough and misshapen and filled with gaps, more like a rat’s nest of wires than a beautiful glass sphere. Its speed was exponential, doubling every moment to the point where Evelynn only blinked and suddenly she found herself being thrown into a world of encompassing colors and light and knowledge, too much knowledge. It buzzed loudly in her ears. The cyber world was spinning around them; up, down, and over to avoid touching them as they delved further into its maze. Evelynn wanted to keep her eyes open, to see everything there was to see, but it was overwhelming all her senses. It didn’t hurt. She was surprisingly not nauseous. But there was a pervading sense of anxiety that only went away when she squeezed her eyes shut.  
  
She felt Dox shake her. “Your highness,” he said softly, as if trying to rouse her from a nap.  
  
“Is it safe?”  
  
“Relatively.”  
  
They were in a white area, perhaps one of the “cities” Evelynn had seen from above. A black conveyor belt moved before them, but the world moved at equal pace so they could keep up with it. It carried strings of numbers.  
  
“What are they?” she wondered.  
  
Dox floated closer, leaving her behind to examine the number their green phone number was now floating over. “Production codes,” he explained. As soon as he touched theirs though, he slammed the conveyor belt with his fist.  
  
“Whatever is the matter!?” Evelynn cried.  
  
“Burner phone.”  
  
“Oh, dear…”  
  
“No. I got this.” He picked up the number as if it were one piece, yet it also remained on the conveyor belt. He had apparently made some sort of copy, which he tossed in front of him. It exploded a few feet away in a shower of sparks, leaving behind an oval that looked into a black void. They went through it.  
  
“Wait a moment…” said Evelynn as she found herself looking at Internet from afar again. “Were we not just here?”  
  
“On the contrary, your highness,” said Dox, showing her the portal, which Evelynn thought they had lost during their mad trip through the Internet. It was no longer two rectangles side-by-side though, but a single square. On closer inspection, she realized the IP address was completely different too.  
  
“Ah. I see. We are in a different computer,” observed Evelynn.  
  
“Mad props,” said Dox, apparently impressed.  
  
Pushing his palm up against it, he opened the portal. Howard’s room was no longer on the other side, but before Evelynn could see what was, Dox had already snagged her wrist, turned violet, and dragged her though. This time she felt like she was being stretched, like pieces of her were coming apart at the seams. By the time she snapped back, she found herself standing in a dark office who knew where thanks to a computer screen variant of [TECHNO-SCREEN TELEPORTATION](https://powerlisting.fandom.com/wiki/Techno-Screen_Teleportation).  
  
It was a tight fit. There was barely enough room for her and Dox to stand between the desk and the back wall painted a startling shade of blue. The computer screen showed where they had been, the light emitted by the Internet lighting the room, but Dox closed it by pressing his palm against it. Everything went dark except for a large dull square on the opposite wall, mostly blocked by blinds. A window, but Evelynn got the sense it didn’t look outside.  
  
“Where are we?” she wondered, stumbling against a filing cabinet as she tried to navigate to the exit.  
  
“Chino.” It took Evelynn a moment to realize Dox meant the town. “Here,” he said, vaulting over the desk and opening the door for her.  
  
“Why Chino?” she wondered.  
  
“This is where the burner phone was sold.”  
  
Evelynn didn’t know what she was expecting…but it certainly wasn’t a Best Buy. It took her a moment to adjust to this new reality before looking around. It was an older one, with graying industrial ceilings and thin metal supports every twenty feet, but it looked to be clean and neat. Even so, it took on a sinister quality in the emptiness of night. Evelynn shivered as she followed Dox to the checkout, weaving between aisles selling PS2 games and printer ink.  
  
Dox had gone ahead and scanned the cash registers, finding the one he was looking for and putting a hand on it like it was an old friend. His helmet’s visor filled up with zeros and ones, and Evelynn knew he was talking to the cash register using [CYBERLINGUALISM](https://powerlisting.fandom.com/wiki/Cyberlingualism). The register began to print up a receipt.  
  
“Dang,” said Dox, ripping it off the roll and giving it a quick read. “The burner was bought using cash.”  
  
Evelynn refused to see the dead-end though and instead found herself glancing up at the rafters, searching. Sure enough, tubes with lenses pointed down at them. The store’s CCTV was rudimentary compared to the set-up her grandfather had at home, but it would work. She pointed them out to Dox.  
  
“Mad props again, your highness!”  
  
They returned to the cramped manager’s office to view the tapes. Part of Evelynn thought it was ironic that an electronics store didn’t utilize DVRs, but the technology was only a couple years old and it wasn’t like Chino was a flagship store or anything. Still, tapes and VCRs seemed severely outdated in this day and age.  
  
Dox paged through the tapes squirreled away in the cabinet until he saw one that matched with the date and time from the receipt and jammed it into the machine. It whined a little, but with a bit of coaxing, the TV flickered to life and showed them a dizzyingly high view of the cash registers, the edges obscured with large white numbers that let Evelynn know the footage was from the day before, at around 2:00 PM. It was also a time-lapse, so the people in it didn’t so much as move as instantly teleport a few feet every couple of seconds. After a minute of watching, Dox tapped the screen to pause and enhance like they were on CSI.  
  
“Our mystery customer, your highness,” he said.  
  
She was an older woman, well-dressed in a trench coat, her hair perfectly coifed. The tape was overexposed, so it was difficult to discern proper colors. She could’ve been blonde or gray or somewhere in between—fair-haired was about all you could say. She was in the process of slipping on a pair of fashionable bug-eyed sunglasses, but enough of her face was visible to be identified.  
  
“Here.” Dox held a hand up against the glass of the TV screen and reached over to touch the printer, forming a bridge between the two with his body. The printer lit up as it jumped to life, shaking the little stand it sat on from side-to-side as it enthusiastically spit out a piece of paper in response to Dox’s [TECHNOLOGY MANIPULATION](https://powerlisting.fandom.com/wiki/Technology_Manipulation). Evelynn grabbed it to find a copy of what was currently on the screen.  
  
As Evelynn examined the woman’s disinterested face, wondering if this was in fact Ceeree’s Dr. Blaylock, Dox put everything back the way he found it, even wiping their appearance from the current CCTV tape and, at Evelynn’s direction, their mystery customer as well. He then opened the portal back into the computer and offered Evelynn his hand again. Though Evelynn found the sensation uncomfortable, she had to admit it was an ideal way to travel when time was of the essence. Her grandfather, she imagined, was also trying to track down who took the Kwami and destroyed Omega Labs. If it was in fact Dr. Blaylock, she had to get to the scientist first. At the very least the Q-bug had given them a head start.  
  
They went back into the computer, back to the Internet, back to a white room. This was a different white room though, the walls covered with blue type. Since the walls did not meet, the Internet at large poked through the edges. In the middle, sitting on a pedestal, was a long, skinny white box.  
  
“This Dr. Blaylock…” started Dox, marching up and touching the box. There was a sound like a crack and a pure white ribbon whipped out from it and wrapped itself around his other hand. “What’s her first name?”  
  
Evelynn bit her lip. “It starts with an A.” At least, that was what Ceeree said was on the woman’s identification badge. She had never shared her first name with him, and everyone in the lab always referred to her as Dr. Blaylock.  
  
This comment caused another ribbon to lash out, much thinner than the first. It was basically a string.  
  
“Anything else you can tell me about her, your highness?” Dox wondered.  
  
Evelynn struggled for a moment, but then remembered the biography Ceeree had rattled off. She repeated it. Upon mentioning certain key facts, more ribbons shot out and wrapped themselves around Dox’s hand. When she finished, he held a nice, fat bouquet of them. He tied them all into a knot and yanked hard until the Internet started to move around them again, the ribbons fraying away into nothingness. Only as they were leaving the room did Evelynn notice the large purple word hanging above her head: Yahoo!  
  
They ended up in a cavity somewhere, where different 2D pictures faced them like sunflowers following the sun. They gently bumped up against one another, reminding Evelynn of boats at the yacht club, each connected to a loose tether that vanished into the swarm of colors that surrounded them.  
  
All of the pictures depicted the same stern, unsmiling woman in different stages of her life—college, marriage, career. Somehow though, they all looked the same, like Dr. Blaylock had been born old.  
  
“Looks like the A stands for Anita,” observed Dox. He held out his hand. “May I?” he asked.  
  
At first Evelynn thought he was asking her to dance, but then she remembered the print-out she had crumpled in her fist. He would obviously need it to compare. She handed it over, but knew before Dox even finished analyzing it that their bug planter and Dr. Blaylock were one in the same. In the most recent picture, some sort of professional shot for a symposium that showed most of her torso, a familiar silver watch was buckled around her wrist. A watch that was now a Miraculous.  
  
Sure enough, pieces of the differing shots of Dr. Blaylock peeled off and formed a film over the screen capture from the Best Buy security camera.  
  
“We have a match,” Dox reported.  
  
“Then we just need to find her.”  
  
“No problem. One address, coming right up, your highness.”  
  
Dox floated around the area, spinning the pictures and transforming them into documents. There were articles Dr. Blaylock wrote on genetics and cloning, lawsuits she filed concerning the theft of her intellectual property, announcements of a Blaylock-Dembroski wedding. Evelynn paused at an obituary from three years ago and read:  
  
_In cherished memory of Gregory D. Dembroski Sr., who slipped the bounds of this mortal plane, Monday, June 8th; at Good Samaritan hospital in Los Angeles, California. Gregory Dembroski, given name Grzegorz Dąbrowski, was born near Warsaw, Poland on March 7 th, 1934, the youngest of five sons. His family sent him to the United States when he was 5, but were unable to follow due to the Occupation. Living with his Aunt and Uncle, he completed high school in Los Angeles; and, became a mechanic. He eventually took over his uncle’s auto repair shop in Inglewood, but his first love was art. He later sold the auto repair shop and worked as an illustrator, becoming well-known for his medical textbooks and greeting cards. He is known to his relatives in Poland as a native son, sending them money and goods that made their lives a little easier. He is remembered by his wife, Dr. Anita Blaylock; his son, Corp. Gregory (Deborah) Dembroski Jr.; and his daughter, Jennifer (Easton) Smith Dembroski. Greg was also the loving grandfather of Cody, Daniel, and Melissa Dembroski. All will remember Greg for his gentle disposition, quiet support, and great generosity—as well as for his love of his adopted country, the wonderful USA! An open-casket viewing will be held at Abbott & Hast Mortuary, 315 Silver Lake Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90026; from 3 o'clock p.m. to 7:30 o'clock p.m., Thursday, June 11th, 1998. A service will be held at Echo Park United Methodist Church; at 1226 N Alvarado St, Los Angeles, CA 90026, Friday, June 12th, at 7:00 o'clock p.m.; Viewing will precede the service from 1 o'clock p.m. to 5 o'clock p.m. A private interment will take place Saturday_ _, at 11:00 o'clock a.m.; at Inglewood Park Cemetery; at 720 E Florence Ave, Inglewood, CA 90301. The family suggests, that in lieu of flowers, donations be made to—  
  
_Dox grunted in frustration, causing Evelynn to look up.  
  
“Who is this woman? A ghost?” he wondered to himself. “She has no current contact information, and her employee records end in ’77.”  
  
“She works for Omega Labs.”  
  
“Omega Labs?”  
  
They returned to Yahoo!, where Dox used Evelynn’s new information to call fourth a multi-colored ribbon, sinewy like a muscle. Dox yanked it to transport them elsewhere. Now they were surrounded by logos, all bearing the name Omega. “Which one?”  
  
Evelynn carefully examined the area. There were gray omega symbols, omega symbols with mortar and pestles inside of them, an omega symbol that was part of a telescope, but none of them were the footed scarlet O she was familiar with. Mouth drawn, she shook her head.  
  
“Do you know what kind of lab it is? What kind of work they do?” asked Dox hopefully.  
  
“It was—It is a genetics lab. A private defense contractor.”  
  
Evelynn sensed Dox raising an eyebrow even though she couldn’t see his face, but he didn’t press her on her last-minute switch. “That explains it. I knew they’d utilize a private network, but it’s probably something insane.”  
  
“Private…network…?”  
  
“It’s common in corporate networks. As a security precaution, they aren’t connected directly to the Internet. Usually a proxy, SOCKS gateway, or a similar device is used to provide restricted Internet access to network-internal users. But if Omega Labs is doing top-secret research for the government, their security will be even tighter. It’ll be difficult for me to access the Omega Labs computers through the Internet. If you want employee records, it’s going to be easier for us to physically go to Omega Labs and enter a computer there.”  
  
_Well…that’s not an option_ , thought Evelynn, images of the crater it had become flashing in her mind’s eye.  
  
“Or a computer that’s connected to their internal network,” Dox added upon further thought.  
  
Evelynn’s grandfather’s computer immediately popped into her head. Even though he was technically retired, he had an empire to run and he did so from his home office. Since Omega Labs held such importance to him, it stood to reason that his computer was connected to the internal network Dox was talking about. Getting to it wouldn’t be easy though. She knew vaguely how Dox’s powers worked, the theory rather than the practice. He would need an IP address for his techno-screen teleportation, which she would have to go get in person. She didn’t relish the thought. With her recent ‘break-in,’ her grandfather would be on high alert. Besides, she wasn’t sure if she had that kind of time. If only there was a less secure computer somewhere else in the house, then—  
  
Wait…  
  
“I can get us close to one,” she said. “You just need to find the IP address of a laptop belonging to Evelynn Laine Ende.”  
  
“Evelynn…” Dox repeated, startling her. He said it softly, as if trying to recall her from years ago. “I know her…”  
  
While the superheroes Evelynn created temporarily erased the people they once were, they retained the intentions of their former selves and any memories associated with those intentions. It served as their motivation. So for Dox to remember her struck her as a little odd. He didn’t say anything further though, instead holding out his hand. Out from the surrounding ribbons struggled a colorful little butterfly with a lavender body and translucent wings.  
  
“MSN?” wondered Evelynn, recognizing the logo.  
  
Dox nodded as the butterfly came to rest in his palm. A sphere of energy surrounded them, whisking them away to a new cavity, one completely lined with TV screens. Some showed commercials, others videos, and some were still, pictures and articles and the like. In the middle floated a metallic door. Dox went over and opened it, the word ‘Clu52@msn.com’ lighting up above it—Howard’s email address. Even though the door wasn’t attached to anything, it opened up into a room. Evelynn followed him inside.  
  
Gravity took hold the instant she crossed the threshold, though she did not notice at first. One moment she was floating, the next she was walking, with no memory of the transition. It was an actual room, with four walls, a ceiling, and a floor, but the furniture was sparse. There was an austere desk with a rolling chair, an overflowing wastepaper basket, a copier/printer, and a filing cabinet. On the desk was a stack of about twenty letters, both opened and unopened, as well as supplies to write letters, an address book, and a thick red marker labeled SPAM. As the door closed behind them, she noticed it had a mail slot that hadn’t been on the front of the door.  
  
Dox was already rifling through the filing cabinet. He pulled out a piece of paper with a solid block of text splashed across it. Evelynn recognized it immediately and wanted to crawl into a hole. Howard had _saved_ that email? Why???  
  
_Dear douchebag,  
  
__No, I will not talk to Libs for you. You had your chance and you blew it. I don’t care how sorry you are. She blocked you for a reason and if you cared about her at all—which I mean obvs you don’t or you wouldn’t be freaking emailing me about it—you would leave her alone. No more “bumping” into her at Maloney’s or the gym. No more drunk voicemails begging for her to come back. She broke up with you. Grow up! And don’t think I had anything to do with it either. I know what you’ve been telling Chris and Mandy and all them. I won’t deny it. I’ve been telling her for months to break up with you and that she’s deserves better but you’re not allowed to play the victim here. You know Libby doesn’t listen to anybody. Especially me. You just pushed her too far this time so stop trying to blame other people for your faults. I get that you think what you do is important but what’s the point if you have no one to share it with? Actual people in your life come first and until you get that through your ASSinine skull, you’re going to die alone. In fact I hope you do.  
  
__~* Evie *~  
  
_She had written it in anger, recalling all the times she had to go pick Libby up from some restaurant or bar because her boyfriend had stood her up or bailed early. In retrospect, Evelynn recognized that she was being a little harsh. Howard was a flake with prioritization issues, not evil. In fact, he sent her an email back that only said ‘OK’ and broke off all contact with Libby. The next time their paths crossed on campus, which wasn’t often, her being nursing and him being computer science and engineering, he exchanged polite small talk with her and then went on his way. At the time she had been suspicious of his motivations, but now she was realizing he had actually taken her words to heart.  
  
Now Howard’s alter ego Dox was holding the email in the palm of one hand, and using the other to brush the top of it. The IP address was swept off the top. It floated before them in a opalescent blue. Evelynn stared at it, trying to think if she’d ever seen it before. Dox took the string of numbers though and threw it against the wall, creating yet another gateway that transported them to what Evelynn assumed to be her computer. When Dox opened the portal to the real world though, all he found was a keyboard.  
  
It took Evelynn a moment, but she burst out laughing.  
  
“Laptops,” Dox muttered with a smile in his voice. He reached through the portal and pushed down, prying the computer open from the inside. It now looked out into her grandfather’s darkened office.  
  
Evidence of Evelynn’s theft had all been cleaned up, so the office looked startlingly like it had when she first entered it five hours ago, before this whole mess started. When she was just Evelynn, not Swan Princess. When she believed the success of Project Lionheart was good news. When she thought her grandfather was a good man. She was the Guardian by that point though, and maybe always had been, so there was no use in pretending that things could’ve ended up any differently.  
  
Being downloaded back into the real world, Evelynn took pains to point out the one surveillance camera in the room. Dox nodded and held up his arm towards it. The blue Tron-line slid out of his sleeve, reached up behind the camera, and grabbed it. Dox started talking to it, zeros and ones once again filling his visor. While Evelynn waited, she closed her laptop and arranged it exactly how she had left it.  
  
“Okay,” said Dox, the Tron-line retracting back into his suit with a snap like a measuring tape as the numbers finished scrolling across his visor. “She says they’ll turn a blind eye to us, run loops. No one will even know we’re here.”  
  
“She? They?”  
  
But Dox had already headed over to her grandfather’s desktop, running a hand across the screen to collect the static. It almost seemed as if he were savoring the moment, but then he abruptly turned to Evelynn and once again held out his hand.  
  
There were so many moments during this entire night when Evelynn could’ve backed out, but she surprised herself by pushing forward. It was rather strange what she could accomplish when the growing sense of panic that usually gnawed at her didn’t overshadow all her decisions. This one couldn’t have been easier. She grabbed Dox, turning him violet, and he opened the portal. Into her grandfather’s computer they went, to the world of empty blackness.  
  
The Internet was there, glimmering in the distance like a rainbow Jupiter, but it was blocked off by a chain-link fence that stretched in all directions for as far as the eye could see. There was a small opening, but bands of electricity sizzled and spit across it.  
  
“Eeeech. Yeah. That would’ve been difficult,” noted Dox as he stared at it. He turned to Evelynn. “Ready to get started, your highness?”  
  
Evelynn nodded, so Dox snapped his fingers. Instead of summoning anything though, the world around them became a little bit darker, a little more vibrant. It took Evelynn perhaps a second too long to realize their security bubble was gone. She heard a sound like gas issuing from a stove and the blackness around them fade to a deep red.  
  
And then fire. There was fire everywhere. It spread so fast that it was impossible to tell where it started, but it soon encased them in a sphere. For a moment, Evelynn’s breath echoed in her ears, frantic as she scrambled backward, mired by nightmares, but Dox seemed completely unfazed.  
  
“Just as I suspected,” he said, heading right towards the flames.  
  
“No, do not touch it!” squeaked Evelynn, using her wings to catch up. She wrapped her arms around his middle and attempted to drag him back.  
  
“Relax, your highness,” he said, patting her arm. “It’s not real fire.”  
  
“Not…real…!”  
  
“It’s a firewall. Get it?”  
  
Evelynn paused. They were maybe five feet from the fire. It flickered and licked, but no black curls of smoke wafted off of it. There was no heat. Even if Evelynn’s superhero outfit protected her, the acrid stench of burning was completely absent. Dox was right. This wasn’t fire—it only looked like it. She released him and watched as he floated right up to it and put both hands against it as if it were solid wall. After all, for all intents and purposes, it was.  
  
“Shouldn’t be too difficult to get through,” he said, knocking on the fire. “All I have to do is—Ahhhh!”  
  
Something blood red and gelatinous had shot out of the firewall, tackling Dox. He released himself by spinning in a corkscrew, throwing off whatever it was that had attacked him.  
  
“Dox!” cried Evelynn, flying to his side. “Are you hurt?”  
  
Dox orientated himself before looking up. Above them floated some sort of noxious, roiling cloud with no set shape, about the size of a small car. It phased between a gaseous and solid state, usually settling on the consistency of Jell-O. It seemed…angry.  
  
“It’s an antivirus,” seethed Dox, as if he were meeting his nemesis for the fifteenth time. “Look out!”  
  
He grabbed Evelynn by the shoulders and threw them both out of harm’s way as the antivirus dive-bombed. They bounced off the firewall and ended up on the far end of the sphere.  
  
“It thinks we’re malware,” explained Dox.  
  
“It is not wrong,” noted Evelynn wryly as she tightened her grip on her scepter. She knew a battle was inevitable from the start. Now it was time to see what the Swan Miraculous could really do.  
  
Pushing off the firewall, Evelynn made a beeline for the antivirus and swung her weapon. The cloud bowed and she missed, but her wings spread and she looped up above it before diving. As it struggled to dodge, she completely severed off a small section of it. It fell away, but it didn’t really matter. The antivirus billowed out, growing back to its original size in mere moments. Evelynn stared in disbelief as it stretched and tried to come at her from multiple directions. She tried to fly out, but it was too quick. Luckily, Dox’s two extendable Tron-lines came shooting past her, crossed in front, and grabbed the antivirus, pumping it full of electricity. It seemed to work at first, shocking the antivirus into submission, but then it began to climb down the lines. Dox retracted them almost immediately, but, by then, Evelynn had managed to escape to his side.  
  
“You won’t be able to stop it like that,” said Dox as his extendable arms began to spin like helicopter blades. The antivirus tried to push through, but only ended up bouncing off of them. “Our best bet is to disable the firewall.”  
  
“How do we do that?”  
  
Dox wasted no time in scanning the firewall. He cursed. “We need the user’s fingerprint.”  
  
“Is there no other way!?”  
  
The antivirus managed to get enough of itself through to try and attack them. Evelynn grabbed Dox and started flying.  
  
“Anything can be hacked with enough time and patience,” he explained. “But we don’t have time. Our best bet is to get something from the user from the real world that we can pull a fingerprint off of, like the mouse.”  
  
“Dox, what a genius idea!”  
  
“One problem though…” He looked over his shoulder to the portal. Though the antivirus chased them, it seemed to never stray far from it. “Here. Drop me. I’ll distract it and you can fly through.”  
  
Evelynn found herself ready to argue, but bit down on her tongue. Logically, she knew Dox was right. With her wings, it was easier for her to reach the portal. But the thought of leaving Dox to fend for himself made her physically ill. She had created him. He was her responsibility. If he got hurt…  
  
But Dox didn’t give her any choice. He wriggled out of her grasp and, extending his Tron-lines, pushed off in the opposite direction as her. She was so distracted that she almost slammed face-first into the firewall, but swooped just in time. She flew along the edge of it in an arc. Far above her, the antivirus took the bait and made a move on Dox. She had to act now, and fast. With the grace of her namesake, she flew up. The antivirus seemed to realize what she was planning though and stretched to stop her. They reached the portal at the same time, but Evelynn swung her scepter, beating it back as she slipped into the real world.  
  
The office was quiet and still and jarring. Evelynn spun around to see a flash of red cross the flames of the firewall through the portal, but everything was silent. It reminded her of _The Yule Log_ on mute.  
  
Evelynn examined the computer’s mouse, but she was dismayed to find it sticky and smelling slightly like lemon. The whole room was more of the same. Evelyn wasn’t surprised. Her grandfather always cleaned when bad things happened. It made him feel like he was in control. Unfortunately, this meant she would have to leave the office to secure a fingerprint. Hopefully, the security camera would be good to her word.  
  
Slipping out into the moonlit hall, Evelynn took the familiar route to the kitchen, taking the shortcut through the formal living room. Her grandfather was a creature of habit who always drank a glass of water before bed, placing it in the sink for Sofia to wash when she came in in the morning. He had done so every night for as long as Evelynn had known him, and hoped he wouldn’t change his schedule now. A brief spark of panic bloomed in her chest when she worried he hadn’t gone to bed yet, but one look in the stainless steel sink alleviated her fears. One glass tumbler, smudged with the fingerprints she needed, was waiting for her. Even though she wore gloves, she was still careful about picking it up. The bit of water that rimmed the bottom looked a little off though, and when Evelynn held it up, she caught a pungent whiff of alcohol.  
  
A part of Evelynn cracked a little. Her grandfather abhorred alcohol. His father was an alcoholic, so he saw firsthand its destruction and vowed never to let it control him. All the wine and spirits in the house, mostly gifts from Rodney, were for guests they never hosted and the one time Evelynn wanted to see what it was like to get drunk. They were not for making highballs.  
  
The air conditioning clicked off and Evelynn came back to the present moment. Dox! She quickly took a look through his eyes and almost dropped the tumbler. The antivirus had attached itself to him. Though he struggled, he could not escape its grasp as it began to climb up his body. Gasping, Evelynn severed their connection and hurried back the way she had come.  
  
“Going so soon? And you only just came back.”  
  
Evelynn froze. She heard the familiar clink of ice cubes against glass and felt her heart plummet as she slowly turned to face her grandfather’s armchair. Shadows obscured it—her grandfather had probably been sitting there the whole time and she hadn’t even noticed.  
  
The sentence “I can explain!” jumped to the forefront of Evelynn’s mind. How many times in high school had she returned home after curfew to find her grandfather sitting in the dark, in that same exact armchair? It always struck her as unsettling, but she easily brushed it aside. Her grandfather always got overdramatic when he was worried. It came from a place of love.  
  
Or maybe, she was starting to realize, he was simply a man you did not cross, no matter who you were.  
  
She heard him swallow and place the glass down on the side table.  
  
“If you’re going to steal from me, I ought to at least know your name,” he reasoned, a dangerously sharp edge to his voice.  
  
The hairs on the back of Evelynn’s neck stood on end, and her fight or flight response kicked into high gear, but she couldn’t bring herself to move. It was like her grandfather’s voice hypnotized her, rooted her to the spot. After a moment of self-reflection though, she realized that staying was her choice. He didn’t scare her nearly as much as he should have—mostly because he had failed to recognize her as his own granddaughter. This anonymity and the courage afforded to her by her Miraculous allowed her to stand her ground because, if there was one thing she wanted besides the Kwami’s safety, it was answers for why any of this was happening at all.  
  
“Swan Princess,” she said with a stunted curtsy. “I wish I could say it is a pleasure, Mr. Ende, but you and I both know that is not true.”  
  
His laughter was unfamiliar to her, dark and sardonic and…hateful. It hurt to hear. “So you’re the thief who destroyed my labs…Funny. I was picturing someone older.”  
  
“Looks can be deceiving.”  
  
“True.” He paused to take another sip, drawing out the silence for as long as he could before resuming. “Why don’t I just cut to the chase: Who do you work for?”  
  
Evelynn tilted her head to the side. “Excuse me?”  
  
“Come now, my dear. Do you honestly expect me to believe you did this all on your own?”  
  
Evelynn was at a loss about what to say. Her grandfather seemed to think there was some sort of grand plan, when really Evelynn was just flying by the seat of her pants. And while it was true she hadn’t done everything on her own, her and Dr. Blaylock had worked independently and for themselves. It was evident her grandfather had his mind made up though, so any truthful answer would be misconstrued as a lie.  
  
Her grandfather stood up impatiently and moved into the moonlight. Evelynn found herself recoiling. He looked as he always did, down to his scarlet silk pajamas, but his eyes were void of the overflowing love he always had what he looked at her. Instead, they were cold and piercing, like an icicle through the heart. He bore down at her, raising his voice with each passing question.  
  
“Who is it? A user of one of the originals? The Order of the Guardians? Who!?”  
  
Evelynn latched on to that last one. “It was the Guardian. The Guardian sent me.”  
  
Her grandfather drew back. “The Guardian?” he repeated, putting emphasis on the ‘the.’ He rubbed his chin. “Not…a Guardian?”  
  
“The Guardian of the seven Kwami created in your lab. Project Lionheart.”  
  
Evelynn watched her grandfather look away and mutter to himself under his breath. Now more than ever she wished the Swan Miraculous came with heightened hearing, but it was no use straining her ears. Her grandfather did seem distracted though, and when he was distracted, she knew he was more likely to absentmindedly answer questions he normally wouldn’t.  
  
“What do you want with the Kwami?” she asked, taking her chances.  
  
He jerked his head back. “The Guardian didn’t tell you?”  
  
“I was told you planned to steal them and abuse their powers. That is all I need to know.”  
  
“I’m sure men like him would see it that way, yes.”  
  
Evelynn refrained from rolling her eyes. Of course her grandfather would think the Guardian was a man. Misogyny ran deep in people her grandfather’s age, but she supposed that was to her advantage. If he thought the Guardian was male, he would never suspect her. Still, this was not the answer she was hoping for.  
  
“And how do you see it, Mr. Ende?” she challenged him.  
  
“I suppose you’ll just have to wait and see.”  
  
Evelynn saw movement out of the corner of her eye a fraction of a second before the sound of a gunshot, but it wasn’t a bullet she was barely able to dodge. Some balled-up piece of fabric hit the coffee table and swept two remotes onto the floor. Another came from behind her grandfather as he ducked and made his escape. She batted the fabric away with her scepter and it spread as it hit the couch. It was a net, set to ensnare her.  
  
A quick scan of the room let her know her grandfather had only been stalling while a team of presumable mercenaries decked out in black-ops gear got into place. One had come from the kitchen while the other concealed himself behind her grandfather’s armchair. Two more burst in through the French doors that led to the patio.  
  
“Go, go, go!” shouted one of the men as they chased Evelynn down the only exit. She took flight and dodged another net, knocking over a priceless Ming vase in the process, as she made her way back to the office. She didn’t know how much time Dox had left and was honestly too afraid to look.  
  
Evelynn slammed the door to the office shut behind her and dragged the curio cabinet in front of it. There was a thump as the mercenaries lowered their shoulders into the door, but it held. Not for long though. Thinking quickly, Evelynn opened a window and ripped open the screen to make it look like she had escaped before throwing herself back into her grandfather’s computer just as the portal was beginning to close.  
  
Wait…why was the portal closing!? Scanning the area, Evelynn found her worst fears realized. The antivirus had almost completely engulfed Dox save for his head. He continued to struggle though as it lifted his visor and oozed up over his left cheekbone and across the bridge of his nose. He screamed and yelled as it inflicted some kind of unimaginable pain.  
  
“No!” cried Evelynn, dropping the glass tumbler. It spun in place in midair as she desperately searched her pocket, her fingers needling the fabric of her dress before she found what she was looking for: Howard’s flash drive. She made a move to crack it in two, to release him from her spell. They would be expelled from the computer and the mercenaries would capture them, but better that than have him die in front of her.    
  
“Your highness! Don’t! Please, don’t!”  
  
Evelynn stared at Dox in disbelief as she watched him bite down on his lower lip to combat his pain. His body convulsed.  
  
“But it will save you!” she argued.  
  
“We got into this together…and we can get out of this together!”  
  
“Are you mental!? If I had warned Howard of the dangers—”  
  
“He would’ve agreed anyway!”  
  
Dox’s two Tron-lines shot out from within the confines of the antivirus, wrapping themselves around Evelynn’s scepter. It took her a moment, but she realized what she had to do. She dropped the flash drive and pulled, pulled with all her might. There was a sucking noise as the antivirus tried to play tug-of-war with her, but she was too powerful. She ripped Dox free.  
  
Screeching, the antivirus expanded, exploded, swelling in size. It became so thin that it turned transparent as it rose up like a tsunami.  
  
Dox came flying by, pushing his visor back down and scanning the glass Evelynn had brought back with her as he passed it. With a yanking motion, a small fleck peeled off of it and flew to his hand.  
  
“Let’s go!” he told her as the antivirus crested and rushed at them. Evelynn yelped and flew after her partner as he made a beeline for the firewall. The antivirus gained on them quickly though.  
  
They weren’t going to make it.  
  
Evelynn did the only thing she could think to do. She took control of Dox and had him shoot the fingerprint at the firewall with his blue Tron-line. It reached just as the searing hot sensation of the antivirus burned its way into her pain receptors as it washed around her.  
  
And then everything was cool and dark, the digital world returned to what it had been when they first arrived. There was no firewall, no antivirus, just the gate guarding the Internet.  
  
Evelynn immediately turned to Dox, hand to her chest. “My apologies! Please forgive me for overstepping my bound in such an egregious display.”  
  
He flipped up his visor and fixed her with a quizzical stare. “Calm down, your highness. What have you to be sorry for?”  
  
“I took control of you. It was most unseemly.”  
  
“Hey now…” His face softened with realization. He hesitated, but then put a hand on her shoulder.  “I’m not complaining. You saved us both. And the fact that you’re worried about it means you won’t abuse that ability.”  
  
“I suppose…”  
  
“Now!” he clapped his hands and rubbed them together, looking out across the inky blackness as if it were a golden city. “Let’s find Anita Blaylock.”  
  
“Actually…” Evelynn felt a bit woozy and she closed her eyes. Though she loathed to admit it, Dr. Blaylock had the right idea by destroying Omega Labs. She had to be thorough. “Download everything and then wipe the computer.”  
  
She didn’t know why she expected dissent. Dox simply whistled through his teeth as he looked around, clearly seeing something Evelynn did not. “That’s going to take a while.”  
  
He threw out his hands, looked up, and began to glow; half blue, half green. Evelynn watched, amazed, as a little sphere of light came forth from the nothingness, about the size and shape of a dandelion seed head. It floated over to Dox, to his left knee, where it was absorbed in a flash of light. She turned to see that several more had appeared while she wasn’t looking. She poked one as it floated passed and she received a jolt of information, a brief picture of a document. It dawned on her that the little spheres of light were data, and Dox began to [DOWNLOAD](https://powerlisting.fandom.com/wiki/Download) everything, using [DATA ABSORPTION](https://powerlisting.fandom.com/wiki/Data_Absorption) to save it in his body. Soon there was a veritable flood of them. They swirled around them, making Evelynn feel as if she were standing in the middle of a snowstorm.  
  
“That’s everything,” said Dox when the data stopped coming. It was difficult to say how much time had passed, but Evelynn suspected it was much longer than it felt. “But this is where it gets interesting.” He gave Evelynn a cheeky grin. “Ready to blow this Popsicle stand?”  
  
Evelyn noticed the cup and the flash drive still floating nearby. She grabbed them. “At your leisure,” she said with a curt nod.  
  
Curious, she watched as Dox floated up to the closed portal. He grabbed it and pulled as if he were rending a stubborn picture frame off a wall. Once it was free, the security bubble that surrounded them shuttered and blinked off, and the fence blocking the way to the Internet vanished. Dox then crumpled the portal into a ball and released it. It was now a white spot, but it started to grow and grow, sucking in its surroundings like a reverse black hole as Dox’s [DATA ERASURE](https://powerlisting.fandom.com/wiki/Data_Erasure) took hold.  
  
“Let’s get out of here,” he said, floating backwards. Evelynn followed, and they escaped to the Internet.

*   *   *

After traveling through a knot of IP addresses and taking a quick pit stop at the New York Public Library in case their breach was traced, they used a different computer to travel back to Los Angeles. They ended up in a familiar place—the Student Technology Center. It was eerily empty thanks to Spring Break. Dox talked to the magnetic lock and the door opened to let them out. The Covel Commons was on the edge of the UCLA Campus, and a good thirty minute walk from Howard’s apartment, but flying took only five. As Dox explained during the flight, he’d rather not travel directly to his computer, just to be safe. Thanks to his data download, he now knew exactly what they were up against.  
  
“That Julius Ende is one shady dude,” he said. “He made his money legally, sure, but it’s how he uses it. I’m talking blackmail, bribery, the whole nine yards. He always gets what he wants and anyone who messes with him ends up paying the price. He’s untouchable.”  
  
Evelynn set her jaw and focused flying in the right direction. She didn’t want to hear this.  
  
“…But I’m sure you already knew that, your highness,” Dox reasoned when she said nothing. “You wouldn’t have gone after him unless you knew he was ev—”  
  
“All I know,” interrupted Evelynn. “Is that he desires to abuse the power of the Kwami, creatures I have been sworn to protect, and I must keep him from doing so.”  
  
“Oh, yeah. Project Lionheart. I noticed you were wielding the Swan Miraculous. Now that is some crazy stuff. I mean, cloning ancient creatures that grant superpowers?”  
  
Evelynn nearly dropped Dox. “Er…perhaps I misheard, but did you, perchance, say…cloning!?”  
  
“Yeah. The seven Project Lionheart Kwami were created in ’81 from DNA gathered from seven other Kwami. I guess there are a lot more than seven, but those are the main ones. Ende somehow got pictures of an ancient text that talks about them, but it’s in a language I can’t understand. There’s nothing like it on the Internet.”  
  
“If you would be so kind, I would like to see those pictures for myself.”  
  
“Of course. I’ll show you everything, your highness.”  
  
“We will need the home address of Anita Blaylock first though.”  
  
“She was one of the scientists working on Project Lionheart. Why do you need to find her?”  
  
“Because I think she found out Ende wanted to abuse the Kwami and stole them before he could.”  
  
“Oh, right! The Q-Bug.”  
  
“She and the Kwami need my protection. I cannot let Ende find them first.”  
  
It was a good place to end their conversation, especially since Evelynn was starting her descent. As soon as they were low enough, Dox used his retractable Tron-lines like he was Spider-Man and swooped down the alley laughing until he reached Howard’s apartment. The window was open and Dox already in Howard’s computer by the time Evelynn joined him. She watched as he expelled all the information from his body, but the data just sat there like a field of stars, stretching for as far as the eye could see into the infinite blackness.  
  
“What now?” Dox wondered.  
  
“I need information pertaining to Project Lionheart separated from the rest.”  
  
“Got it.” He nodded. “It’s gonna take a while, but here.” A little fluffy seed head of data, no different than all the other ones, zipped into his outstretched palm. He gently took Evelynn by the wrist and tipped it into her hand before closing her fingers over it.  
  
A tax form appeared before them, a 1099. Anita Blaylock’s name was typed into a box in the middle. One line below was an address: 1316 Carroll Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90026.  
  
“Angelino Heights,” observed Dox, recognizing the neighborhood. “Nice.”  
  
“I should go.” Evelynn prepared to leave, but then thought better about it. She turned back to Dox and curtsied. “You have my deepest gratitude, Dox. I could not have done any of this without you.”  
  
For one brief moment, Evelynn contemplated kissing him on the cheek, but then decided against it.

*   *   *

Dr. Blaylock’s home in Angelino Heights was indeed quite nice. It was an old but well-preserved Victorian, painted blue with cream and brown accents. It reminded Evelynn of the dollhouse her grandfather commissioned for her, before she informed him she didn’t like dolls and he bought her a trampoline instead.  
  
Landing atop the roof of the corner porch, Evelynn peeked through the window, trying to see beyond the edge of the lace curtains. She could sense it, Mimmi the Rabbit Kwami’s contagiously effervescent presence. It was right there. She had found her! But the others…there was simply a yawning emptiness where Evelynn hoped they would be. But Dr. Blaylock was a smart woman. She had probably hidden them somewhere. Mimmi she had to keep on her because her watch was now the Rabbit Miraculous.  
  
Speaking of Dr. Blaylock, Evelynn went in search of the woman’s intentions. They were as clear as day, though not as pure as Evelynn would’ve hoped. Her cufflinks didn’t glow at all. It seemed Dr. Blaylock harbored deep resentments and wanted revenge against those who had wronged her, and there were many—those who dismissed her, took advantage of her, rejected her, passed her over. She sought the power to make them pay through success, which came at the cost of almost everything else in her life. It reminded Evelynn of a dark version of Howard’s intentions. But it wasn’t all bad. There was also a love there, an earnestness in thought and mind, for equality and helping others grow. Dr. Blaylock believed in fairness, even though she knew she lived in a world that wasn’t fair. It balanced her out, but it was clear to Evelynn that the scientist wasn’t the right fit to wield the Rabbit Miraculous. She would not be able to protect Mimmi like a true Chosen One could…but maybe Dr. Blaylock could help Evelynn locate one who _would_.  
  
Evelynn tapped on the window with her scepter where Dr. Blaylock’s intentions were the strongest and waited. When nothing happened, Evelynn tried again.  
  
“Mimmi, it is I…the Chosen One for the Swan Miraculous,” she called out. She almost said she was the Guardian, but didn’t trust Dr. Blaylock enough to do so. Instead, she planned to continue the charade that she had started with her grandfather. “The Guardian sent me.”  
  
A ball of white fluff phased through a nearby wall and tackled her with a hug, nearly throwing her off the roof. “Oh, thank goodness!” chirruped Mimmi. “I knew you were here to help us! Dr. Blaylock didn’t believe me, but if the Guardian sent you, you must be good!”  
  
A lamp turned on inside and a stern woman of about sixty, hair more salt than pepper, pushed aside the curtains and glared out at them—Dr. Blaylock. With her frilly nightgown and housecoat though, she looked less threatening than she clearly intended. Glinting around her wrist was the silver watch from Evelynn’s vision.  
  
Mimmi pointed to Evelynn. “She’s a friend!” said the Kwami before waving all her limbs wildly.  
  
“I have been searching for you all night, Dr. Blaylock,” Evelynn told her through the window, but it did not soften the woman’s harsh features in the slightest. “You are not an easy woman to track down.”  
  
“Let her in, let her in,” commanded Mimmi, phasing back inside and cranking the window open, much to Dr. Blaylock’s chagrin.  
  
“My name is Swan Princess,” said Evelynn, curtsying. “I am pleased to make your acquaintance.”  
  
Dr. Blaylock crossed her arms and refused to move, her eyes darting to Evelynn’s cufflinks. “How did you get your hands on the Swan Miraculous?” she demanded.  
  
Evelynn really couldn’t blame her for her distrust. She was going to lie to her, after all. “The Guardian stole them from the founder of Omega Labs and gave them to me. He sent me here to speak with you.”  
  
“And who is this Guardian?”  
  
“The Guardian keeps us safe!” chimed in Mimmi.  
  
“You tell me this now!? Where has this information been all this time?”  
  
The Kwami held a paw to her mouth. “That’s a good question. I didn’t remember until Swan Princess mentioned him.”  
  
“Collective unconscious,” explained Evelynn, the answering coming to her, but then remembered to add: “That’s what the Guardian told me.”  
  
“So he’s a believer in Jung, is he?” Dr. Blaylock’s face and body language remained rigid, but she did move away from the window. “I suppose stranger things have been proven true. Well, come in, then.”  
  
Evelynn slipped inside to find herself in a bedroom. The furniture was surprisingly sleek and modern to contrast with the outside, but covered in a layer of dust. The only thing that really stood out was the faded quilt on the bed. One side of it was rumbled, but the other was pulled perfectly taut.  
  
Dr. Blaylock padded over to a pair of conversation chairs in the corner and took a seat. A beautiful gilded tea set sat on the table separating them. As Evelyn joined her, she saw the bottoms of the cups were stained brown. It actually wasn’t just for show. Mimmi made a loop, grabbed a sugar cube to munch on, and landed atop the teapot.  
  
“Now,” said Dr. Blaylock as she crossed her ankles. “What does the Guardian want with me?”  
  
“The other Kwami. He knows you took them before you destroyed Omega Labs.”  
  
The woman tried to cover her surprise and was mostly successful. “He thinks I have them?” Her lips became a thin white line as she pressed them together. “Unfortunate.”  
  
Evelynn felt the edges of her panic, even if it couldn’t reach her in this form. She drew back, eyes wide. “Whatever do you mean, ‘Unfortunate’?”  
  
“I didn’t take the Kwami. I set them free. I have no idea where any of them are. Well, no, that’s not true. Ceeree is obviously with you, Mimmi is with me, and Wrekk…” She grimaced, Mimmi whimpering. “I’m sorry to say that Wrekk didn’t make it. As for the other four, I told them to get as far away from Omega Labs as possible.”  
  
Evelynn didn’t bother to correct Dr. Blaylock about Wrekk—he was safer if he was thought to be dead. Besides, Evelynn had other things to worry about as she rose from her seat. “How could you be so thoughtless!?” she demanded. “It is only a matter of time before the others form their own Miraculouses! And as you well know, they do not always attach themselves to proper Chosen Ones. They shall be sitting ducks! They will be recaptured for sure.”  
  
“I did better than your Guardian ever has. Where has he been this whole time?”  
  
“The Kwami were fine until you meddled and created a Miraculous. Two, I might add.”  
  
Here Dr. Blaylock cast a furious glance Mimmi’s way. The creature lowered her ears and hid behind her half-eaten sugar cube, trying to look as small and pathetic as possible. “I admit the Swan Miraculous was my doing, but I was trying to save my job. I didn’t realize the ramifications until it was too late. As for the Rabbit Miraculous, that was not my choice.”  
  
“It was the only way to save you!” squeaked Mimmi. “You wouldn’t have survived that explosion!”  
  
“Oh…” said Evelynn, the pieces falling into place. She sunk back down into her chair. “I…see.”  
  
“Poor planning on my part,” Dr. Blaylock admitted, clearly annoyed with herself. “I didn’t realize Wrekk was in quarantine and separated from the others. I tried to free him too, but I ran out of time.” She sighed, lost in thought for a moment. “I never intended to become the holder of the Rabbit Miraculous. It’s as you say. Mimmi has made herself a sitting duck. I’ve been up all night, pondering how to best protect her. And I believe I’ve found the answer.”  
  
Without even warning Mimmi, Dr. Blaylock unbuckled her watch and the Kwami vanished mid-bite. The sugar cube tumbled down the teapot and ended up in the saucer below. Evelynn stared at the spot where she last saw Mimmi and didn’t notice Dr. Blaylock proffering the Rabbit Miraculous until she shoved it right into her face.  
  
“My goodness!” Evelynn said, hand to her heart.  
  
“Take it.”

Evelynn knew it was more than possible to wield two or more Miraculouses at once, but it wasn’t recommended. Each was powerful enough in its own right because they were designed to be used individually. No good-hearted person would try to multi-wield unless they had no other choice because they knew what could happen. What was that quote again? Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Besides, what if her grandfather found her out? She would only get him that much closer to his goal she had two Miraculouses instead of one.  
  
“I cannot, in good conscience, accept your offering. I am already in possession of a Miraculous,” Evelynn pointed out. “It is dangerous to have more than one.”  
  
Dr. Blaylock rolled her eyes. “Then take it to your Guardian. Surely he can protect it.”  
  
Evelynn squeezed her eyes shut. It was a little difficult when she and the Guardian were one in the same. “He cannot.”  
  
“What!? Then what good is he?”  
  
Evelynn had never seen anyone put a watch on so aggressively before. Mimmi returned, blinking in the weak glow of the lamp.  
  
“Why did you take off your watch?” the creature wondered, voice quavering.  
  
“It doesn’t matter,” said Dr. Blaylock. “Apparently your ‘friend’ isn’t going to help us after all.”  
  
Mimmi looked at Evelynn with her luminous, honey-colored eyes like a confused puppy.  
  
“That is patently untrue,” Evelynn assured the Kwami. She turned back to Dr. Blaylock, eyes flashing. This woman was a real piece of work. “The best way to protect Mimmi is to find her a Chosen One. You have proven yourself trustworthy to our cause, so the Guardian was hoping you would be willing to find one for us.”  
  
“So you wish for me to...what? Travel the world looking for candidates?”  
  
“That's an accurate summation, yes.”  
  
“And is there a reason why this job falls to me?”  
  
“The Guardian and I will be otherwise occupied locating the four missing Kwami.”  
  
“No. I will have no part in this.”  
  
“Dr. Blaylock, be logical. You destroyed the lab of a defense contractor for the United States government. They will be after you. So will the founder of Omega Labs. For how long do you think you can escape their scrutiny? But the Guardian can keep you safe. All he is asking for in return is that you search for a Chosen One for the Rabbit Miraculous.”  
  
“This sounds like blackmail.”  
  
“He is trying to help you, Dr. Blaylock!”  
  
Evelynn’s frustration was mounting. Why was this woman being so difficult? She was ten seconds away from leaving and coming back after she was done with Dox to force a feather on Dr. Blaylock, but immediately felt awful for even entertaining the idea. Clearly she was asking a lot of the scientist, and the promise of safety was not enough to entice her. Luckily, Evelynn had done enough research on Dr. Blaylock to know exactly what would.  
  
Smoothing out her dress, Evelynn cleared her throat and tried again. “Tell me, Dr. Blaylock. Why did you become a geneticist?”  
  
The woman’s mouth parted slightly before she spoke, clearly taken off-guard. “I don’t…I don’t think anyone has ever asked me that question before.”  
  
Evelynn said nothing, just gave a polite smile. Dr. Blaylock fixed her with a hard look, as if trying to suss out Evelynn’s plan, but could find no fault to the question.  
  
“Very well, I’ll bite,” she said. “I grew up in a stanchly religious home. My parents believed God created man in his image, so God was a man. They believed a woman’s place was by man’s side, to serve him and keep the home. Thank goodness things are much more progressive today, but, at the time, it wasn’t out of the ordinary. And it made me mad. Because I was better than all my brothers. I excelled academically while they did not, yet I was expected to be only a wife and mother. There is nothing wrong with that if that is your choice—I did eventually become both—but I wanted to do more. Be more. Then, one night, when I was about nine or ten, I heard my father complaining to my mother about something he had read. Two scientists had cloned a frog. He was furious because he said they were playing God. That phrase stuck out to me. Playing God. I wanted to play God. Then I could do as I pleased. Then God would be a woman and men would have to serve me!”  
  
“So you became a geneticist to play God?”  
  
“Don’t be absurd. That was simply a child’s way of thinking. I became a geneticist because I wanted respect, not just for myself, but for womankind in general.”  
  
Evelynn thought back to the awards Dr. Blaylock didn’t win, the lawsuits she filed concerning stolen intellectual property, the fact that she bugged the Swan Miraculous before submitting it. “But it hasn’t been going well,” Evelynn guessed.  
  
“No,” seethed the woman. “Every time I have a breakthrough, one of my associates takes credit. One of my _male_ associates. And any time I try to stand up for myself, I find myself blackballed.”  
  
“Then why not work alone?”  
  
“That’s always been my dream. Unfortunately, I do not have such a luxury. I am at the whims of whoever ends up hiring me. I’ve always worked in a group. Short of me suddenly becoming independently wealthy, I don’t see that changing in the future.”  
  
“I see. In that case, the Guardian is willing to become your exlusive benefactor.”  
  
“…Excuse me?”  
  
Evelynn thought of her bank account with too many numbers and the wastepaper basket full of fat stacks of cash stolen from her grandfather’s safe still in the trunk of her car. “He will fund all your research, pay for your food, lodging, travel, whatever you require so that you can work without fear of interference and finally receive the recognition and respect you deserve. All he asks for in return is that you submit potential Chosen Ones for the Rabbit Miraculous. How does that sound?”  
  
Evelynn had her. She was sure of it. The hungry look in Dr. Blaylock’s eyes grew ravenous as everything she had ever wanted was placed within her reach. But the woman clamped down on it hard with a sour look.  
  
“I appreciate the gesture, but no thank you.”  
  
This was the last straw for Evelynn. “What must I do—!?” she started to shout, sweeping her arms out, but she neglected to take into account the length of her scepter. It nearly took out Mimmi as it struck the spout of the teapot and knocked it off the table. It smacked into the hand scrubbed hardwood and shattered.  
  
A wail sounded from somewhere else in the house, sending a shock down Evelynn’s spine. A child. A child was crying. Beneath it there were a myriad of other noises—murmurs, creaking floorboards, footsteps, squeaking hinges, rattling doorknobs. The house had suddenly come alive.  
  
“Now look what you’ve gone and done,” groused Dr. Blaylock as she rose from her seat.  
  
Evelynn was at a loss. She was under the impression they were alone in the house.  
  
There was a knock at the door as Dr. Blaylock was heading towards it. She opened it a crack.  
  
“Was that you, Ma?” came a young woman’s voice from the other side.  
  
“Yes, yes. I accidentally knocked over my teapot.”  
  
“I didn’t even hear you come home. How late did you get in?”  
  
“I’m allowed to keep my hours and you’re allowed to keep yours. You don’t see me questioning you.”  
  
“It was just a question, Ma. God!”  
  
Dr. Blaylock’s daughter stomped away down the hall.  
  
The shrieks and cries softened as Dr. Blaylock shut the door and pressed her forehead up against it. Her breathing was ragged and strange, but Evelynn recognized the cadence. The scientist was trying to control her emotions with a breathing exercise. Evelynn gave her the space to do so and busied herself with cleaning up her mess with Mimmi’s help. As they stacked up pieces of porcelain, Evelynn listened to the murmurs again. They were male, soft and comforting, and soon joined by a female. The child eventually stopped crying.  
  
“Your daughter and her family are visiting,” Evelynn finally observed. She didn’t know what else to say.  
  
“If that’s the case, they’ve been visiting for two years,” snarked Dr. Blaylock. She returned to her seat, composed but with a blotchy face. She opened her mouth to say more, but then closed it, instead focusing on her watch. When she finally did speak, it seemed like a non sequitur. “Do you have children, Swan Princess?”  
  
“Me!?” gasped Evelynn. “Oh. Oh, no. I…I am much too young, I think.”  
  
“I see.” She chewed the inside of her cheek, debating whether she should continue or not. She did. “Well, I have two children, and I didn’t see them much while they were growing up. I was too busy. Work came first. It was…a mistake.” This seemed difficult for her to admit. “When they were old enough, they cut me out of their lives. I thought their punishment was fair. It was nothing short of what I deserved and I was willing to live with the choices I made. But then my husband passed away…” She looked towards the bed now, to the quilt that was perfect on one side. “I had never been so alone. He was a lovely man, the forgiving sort. He was constantly trying to get the children to patch things up with me, but they refused to give me a second chance. At his funeral things were…difficult. But my children were there and they forgave me because that was what their father would’ve wanted. We started over. And I’ve never been more grateful for such an opportunity in my entire life. Trouble is, I’m not good at expressing it. But I’ve been trying. That’s why, when my son-in-law lost his job right after my daughter went on an unpaid maternity leave and they were no longer able to make rent, I invited them to come live with me. Things have been going well…my granddaughter, Jaclyn—she gets bigger every day. We just had a tea party the other day.” She paused, the ghost of a smile crossing her face, but then her countenance darkened. “As much as I want to put work first sometimes still, all I have to do is think of little Jaclyn and know it’s a mistake. I cannot afford to have her grow up hating me like her mother did.”  
  
It dawned on Evelynn that Dr. Blaylock was trying to explain why she was rejecting the Guardian’s offer. “You do not wish to leave your family,” she observed. It was difficult for her not to be reminded of her own grandfather. He also had a child who cut him out of his life, and then tried to make up for it by being there for that child’s daughter. “But you have to,” Evelynn continued. “If you stay, you will only put them in danger.”  
  
Dr. Blaylock tightened her jaw, the vein in her neck bulging. “You don’t know that.”  
  
“And you do not know who you are dealing with—the founder of Omega Labs was willing to defraud the United States government to create and use those Kwami. If you stay, the Guardian guarantees that man will track you down and take the Rabbit Miraculous from you, by any means necessary.” Mimmi gulped, but Dr. Blaylock didn’t appear to be listening as she shuffled over to her window and looked out. Evelynn would not be deterred though as she followed. “You and I both know the Rabbit Miraculous is powerful. Once he has it in his possession, there will be no stopping him.”  
  
“He’ll take over the world.”  
  
Evelynn gave pause. That didn’t seem right.  
  
“Is that what you heard…?” she asked, hoping Dr. Blaylock was wrong. “The Guardian knows you were listening in on Rodney Cadel and the founder of Omega Labs…”  
  
“Yes.”  
  
They both lapsed into silence. Dr. Blaylock was no doubt thinking over Evelynn’s proposition, but Evelynn was stuck wondering when her grandfather had become an evil megalomaniac. And what kind of person was she for loving him still? After all, she could’ve told General Taggart or Dr. Blaylock her grandfather’s name and where to find him, but she didn’t. Despite everything, she didn’t want anyone to know his part in all this. She didn’t want any harm to come to him. She still thought she could stop him herself somehow.  
  
“I’ll do it. I’ll go.”  
  
“Hmm?” Evelynn looked up to find Mimmi looping over to sit on Dr. Blaylock’s shoulder.  
  
“Are you absolutely positively positive?” wondered the creature.  
  
But Dr. Blaylock had locked eyes with Evelynn. “I only have to find you a suitable Chosen One for the Rabbit Miraculous, correct? And then I can return home?”  
  
“That is all I ask,” said Evelynn.  
  
“Very well then, Swan Princess. Tell your Guardian I accept his proposition.” She looked in the direction the cries had come from, as if she could see her granddaughter through the walls. “I shouldn’t be gone for very long.”

*   *   *

Evelynn returned to Howard’s apartment, to his computer, to find the field of data bits (bytes?) a bit sparser. Dox was now in possession of a metallic suitcase, which was filling with all sorts of paperwork.  
  
It was impossible to drag her feet in cyberspace, but if Evelynn could, she would.  
  
“How did everything go, your highness?” Dox asked as if she had come home from a long day at the office. She honestly had no intentions of telling him, but the words bubbled out of her anyway.  
  
“Dr. Blaylock didn’t take the Kwami, she set them free. Other than the one she has…they’re gone.”  
  
“Oh. I’m—”  
  
“Have you completed your task?”  
  
“Er, yeah. Yeah.” He swept up one last seed head and slammed it down into the suitcase, where it transformed into a fifty-page document. Somehow, the pile inside didn’t get any taller though. He flipped the suitcase shut and closed the locks with a swift click. “Everything that's got to do with to Project Lionheart is in here,” he explained, handing it over to her. “What about the rest of it?”  
  
“Download it again. We must make haste for Evelynn Ende’s computer.”  
  
Even though Evelynn couldn’t see Dox’s face, she sensed he was regarding her with suspicion. “…Okay. Whatever you want, your highness.”  
  
Dox’s body sucked in the remaining data and soon the Internet was hurtling around them, a prismatic display of color and light. Now that Dox knew the route to Evelynn’s laptop, it was easy to reach.  
  
“Now what?” Dox wondered.  
  
“This computer will need to be safeguarded.” She brushed passed him. “See what you can do.”  
  
Evelynn started to open the suitcase only for Dox’s Tron-lines to whip out of nowhere, tie her wrists together, and yank her away.  
  
“What are you doing!?” he cried.  
  
But Evelynn could only think of how much she had left to do, and her lack of sleep was now making her irritable. She glared at him through reddened eyes. “How dare you!? Unhand me, knave!”  
  
“No way! Have you lost your fraking mind, your highness? Evelynn is Julius Ende’s granddaughter. Give me one good reason why you think we can trust her with this information!”  
  
For efficiencies sake, Evelynn decided to just drop all pretenses. Why not? Nothing was going right anyway. “Fold my wings,” she said, a gust of wind striping away her costume feather by feather in a few seconds. Ceeree zipped out of her left cufflink, a grimace on his face. “Because I am her!” Evelynn shouted at Dox.  
  
Dox recoiled as if he thought Evelynn was going to hit him. “You…you didn’t have to reveal your identity to me…”  
  
The lack of sleep was really catching up to Evelynn now. She used the heels of her hands to rub her eyes. Her contacts burned. “Honestly? It’s not like it matters. As soon as I turn you back into Howard, you’re not going to remember any of this anyway.”  
  
Dox slammed a hand to the side of his helmet, the visor springing up. His eyes were wide, his Tron-line glowing brighter than normal. “What!?” He grabbed her shoulders, frantic. “No…No. Please. I want to remember. Please don’t take this all away from me.”  
  
Evelynn softened, patting one of his hands. “I’m sorry, man. That’s just how it works. Nothing I can really do about it.”  
  
“What if you transformed Howard back into me? Would I remember again?”  
  
“I guess so. Why?”  
  
He turned her words over in his head before lowering himself down on one knee as if he were about to propose. He bowed his head. “Then I hope you’ll consider using me as your knight again.”  
  
Evelynn couldn’t help but laugh. “Wow. You really enjoyed your time as a superhero, huh?”  
  
“No.” He looked up, an intensity in his gaze that hadn’t been there before. “I really enjoyed my time with you.”  
  
Evelynn wasn’t laughing anymore.  
  
“Dox, please,” she said. “This has been a long night for me.”  
  
“I-I know. I just…”  
  
“Can you please just safeguard my computer? I can’t have my grandpa finding out about me, or about anything. And then we have to figure out what we’re going to do about Dr. Blaylock. We need to protect her, get her out of the country, but it can’t be too suspicious. We don’t want the government or, you know, my grandpa to suspect her of anything. He thinks Swan Princess stole the Kwami and destroyed Omega Labs, and I want to keep it that way. She’s even agreed to look for a Chosen One for the Rabbit Miraculous in exchange for funding for her research. You can initiate a wire transfer from my account that’s impossible to trace, right? I’ve got some cash too. $100,000 in cash I stole from my grandfather. I stole…I stole…!”  
  
A million and one thoughts were rampaging through her brain now, and her panic was starting to rise. Her breath grew short, and she felt like she had a cube of ice stuck in her throat and a python constricting her chest. She was close to spiraling out of control, so she hugged herself.  
  
“Ah!” cried Ceeree, flying right up into her face as he recognized the signs. “Don’t panic, don’t panic, don’t panic!”  
  
One Tron-line grabbed Ceeree from behind while the other covered his mouth. Dox pulled him away. He then proceeded to draw a perfect neon ring in midair that he slowly shrunk by pushing down and then returned to its original size by pulling. Without his influence, it continued the repetitive motion on its own.  
  
“Breath in,” said Dox as the circle expanded. “Breath out,” he said as the circle contracted.  
  
Evelynn did as he said. In. Out. In. Out. She was so focused on the task that she didn’t notice the blackness surrounding her melting away until she was standing on a stone in the middle of a koi pond. There seemed to be a white mist forming a protective bubble around her, so she couldn’t see that far, but the area was surrounded with flowers, bushes, rocks. On a small ridge above her was a tiny tea house surrounded by blooming magnolia and camellia trees. Everything was still.  
  
“I’ve…I’ve been here before,” she said, struck with a mixture of awe and déjà vu.  
  
“The Hannah Carter Japanese Garden,” explained Dox. She spun around to find him standing on the shore, still holding a sullen Ceeree captive. “You took this picture your freshman year. I thought it looked relaxing.”  
  
So Dox had placed her in a picture, which explained the frozen fish in the water. She tried to think of what superpower this was, but she could no longer identify it by its proper name now that she wasn’t Swan Princess.  
  
“You stay here while I get to work,” he said, his Tron-lines placing Ceeree into her hands. The Kwami worked on smoothing his ruffled feathers, mumbling about how he was only trying to help. Evelynn rubbed his head, already feeling better. “And Evie?”  
  
“Yes?”  
  
“Everything is going to be okay.”  
  
The words were like magic because, despite everything, she believed them coming from him.  
  
She watched Dox vanish into the mists and sighed. “What am I going to do, Ceeree?” she wondered.  
  
“You’re doing great, Guardian. Your grandfather doesn’t suspect you and we’re going to get Dr. Blaylock someplace safe.”  
  
“No, I mean…about the future.” Evelynn longed to go back to yesterday, when her thoughts on the matter were much different. “I have to go find your friends. Hokss, Roadd, Lummen, Zaasa…they’re all out there somewhere, but I don’t know how to event start looking for them.”  
  
“Don’t worry, Guardian! You’ll find them. I know you will because you’re the best Guardian I’ve ever had.”  
  
“I’m the only Guardian you’ve ever had.”  
  
They lapsed into silence. Evelynn took a seat and poked at the water. It didn’t feel wet because it existed in looks only. It was unable to move, trapped in the moment.  
  
Evelynn could relate.

*   *   *

“You’re home.”  
  
Evelynn looked up from her quiet contemplation to find Dox standing on the wraparound porch of the tea house. Ceeree, who had been splashing around in the water, zipped up into the air and shook his tail feathers, even though they were already dry.  
  
Dox had poked his head in once before, to let Evelynn know her computer was being moved according to her GPS chip. She explained her grandfather was having it sent to her place. Dox estimated he would be finished with everything he could do to help Evelynn by the time it arrived at its destination.  
  
She stood, brushing the butt of her dress pants.  
  
“Are you ready?” she asked him.  
  
“Are you?” he countered.  
  
“Ceeree and I have come up with a plan.”  
  
It had taken them an hour or two of bouncing ideas off each other, but they had found something that would hopefully work. Evelynn had gotten the idea from combining what she wanted to do after college with what her grandfather wanted her to do after college. That way, her actions wouldn’t seem so out of the blue.  
  
The mist swirled around them and the Japanese garden dissipated.  
  
“I’m going to become a traveling nurse,” Evelynn explained as Dox opened the portal to the real world. It again showed a keyboard, which he pushed against to open the laptop. The early morning light lit the hotel suite a dull yellow. Back to Politics then. “One of my professors was talking about it. New town every one to three months. It’s the perfect cover for searching for the Kwami. Ceeree and I don’t think they would leave the country, but that’s still a lot of area that I have to cover.”  
  
Dox took them back to the real world, where she collapsed on the pinstriped couch. Despite her best efforts, tears began to well up in her eyes. She just felt so tired and frustrated and upset. All she had ever wanted was a normal life. Instead, she’d have to live a double one, always looking over her shoulder, afraid of her own grandfather. What if she never found the four missing Kwami? What if her grandfather got to them first?  
  
“Sounds good,” said Dox, not fully paying attention as he closed the portal and scooted the laptop closer to him. “Now let me show you what I’ve done with your computer…”  
  
Evelynn couldn’t hold everything in any longer. A muffled sob escaped her lips. Alarmed, Dox sprung up from the couch.  
  
“Hey!” The visor went up. “Hey…” he said again, kneeling in front of her. He brushed her limp hair out of her face, but Evelynn pushed him away and hurriedly tried to dry her tears.  
  
“No. No. I’m fine. I’m fine.”  
  
“Take a step back and breathe,” suggested Ceeree. “You need a distraction! Why don’t you—?”  
  
“Ceeree, spread my wings!” Evelynn demanded, transforming only to silence him. Once it was finished, she dropped her scepter and covered her face with her hands, her whole body quivering as she battled to keep from bawling. Despite her best efforts though, tears continued to form rivulets down her cheeks. “This burden of mine…” she admitted. “It is heavy. So very, very heavy…”  
  
Dox whipped off his trench coat and put it around Evelynn’s shoulders. He returned to his seat next to her and pulled her towards him, holding her close. She allowed herself a few moments of this, took in his chemical scent as she leaned against his chest, but she refused to accept much more because it wasn’t real, just like the Japanese Garden. She had created Dox. Of course he would comfort her. It’s what she wanted.  
  
She pushed off of him and reached into her pocket. “We shall finish this tonight, Dox,” she said. “For now, I bid you adieu.”  
  
“No, Evie, don’t—!” he begged, reaching for her, but it was too late. Evelynn snapped the flash drive in two and the feather escaped, wafting away. Dox seized and white hot light was expelled from his body skywards, transforming him back into Howard. An invisible force then gently laid him to rest on the couch. Evie watched the flash drive mend itself before her very eyes and revert to boring old black.  
  
“Ceeree, fold my wings,” she said before the Swan Miraculous could lose one amethyst. The moment she was back to being Evelynn, she yanked her cufflinks off and discarded them on the table. They skittered across it, one of them falling to the floor. She tried to head to the bathroom to wash her face, but Howard was already coming around.  
  
“Where…?”  
  
He looked up, flinching when he saw Evelynn.  
  
“Rise and shine, Sleeping Beauty,” she said. She marched over to the sliding glass door and looked out over Los Angeles, arms crossed. The sooner she could get him to leave, the better. “How’s the hangover?”  
  
“Evie…?”  
  
“God, you don’t remember anything, do you?”  
  
“Did I mix Red Bull with vodka again…?”  
  
“You tell me. You show up here looking for Libby and then you pass out on my couch.” She cast what she hoped was a derisive glance over her shoulder. “She’s not here, by the way.”  
  
“Are…are you crying?”  
  
Now it was Evelynn’s time to flinch as she looked forward again. Her eyes were probably still red. She glared at her weak reflection in the glass, angry at herself for letting him see that much. “Go home, Howard.”  
  
“Hey,” he said softly, getting up and coming to her side. “Hey…”  
  
Evelynn wanted to scream. What right did he have to sound exactly the same? He wasn’t Dox anymore. He wasn’t a superhero. She had no control over him, she hated him, and he still wanted to comfort her? It didn’t make any sense.  
  
“I didn’t do this, did I?” he asked her.  
  
“Not everything is about you, Howard.”  
  
“I’m learning that.”  
  
An awkward silence passed between them, filled with an occasional sniffle from Evelynn. Why couldn’t he just take the hint and leave? But she couldn’t trust herself to open her mouth to say so. She would only break down again.  
  
“Listen, you don’t have to tell me anything,” said Howard finally, putting a tentative hand on her shoulder. The warmth of it spread into Evelynn’s skin and she was tempted to curl into him and cry some more. “But I hope you talk to someone about it. You don’t have to go through this alone. And I know it might not seem like it now…but everything is going to be okay.”  
  
With a sharp intake in breath, Evelynn turned to Howard. His heterochromatic eyes were dishwater compared to Dox’s, but they were just as kind, so she crumbled. She wasn’t proud of herself. She would later tell him it was a mistake, a moment of weakness while she was dealing with family issues. There was something innately wrong to her about crying on her best friend’s ex-boyfriend’s shoulder, but in that moment, she didn’t care. She was just glad someone was there for her, and, surprisingly, she was glad it was him.


	3. The Guardian

**_Tulane Medical Center_**  
**_New Orleans, LA_**  
**_March 4, 2003  
  
_**With three 12-hour shifts in a row in the books, Evelynn left Tulane Medical Center with the energy level of a zombie. She shambled along in the direction of Canal Street, her mind focused on catching a series of buses back to her studio apartment and collapsing in bed. The RTA was in the process of redesigning and rebuilding the Canal Streetcar line, which would be a straight shot home and make Evelynn’s life a whole heck of a lot easier, but it wasn’t going to be ready until next year. She’d be long gone by then.  
  
The morning was clear, bright, and chilly. Evelynn wrapped herself tighter in her wool-knit cardigan and felt the warm knot that was Ceeree hiding in her pocket. Normally the streets were a bit quieter at seven in the morning, but not today. Oh, no. Today was Fat Tuesday—Mardi Gras was in full swing, the streets bedecked in royal purples, golds, and greens. Drunken revelers from Lundi Gras the night before were only now just stumbling home so they could rest before the party in the French Quarter started anew (but did it ever really stop?).  
  
The last three days had been insane. The emergency room had been chock-full of stabbings and alcohol poisonings, but at least Evelynn would have the worst day off. She foolishly thought she’d be able to enjoy Carnival when she first found out her next assignment was New Orleans back in January. Little did she know she was probably going to go home and sleep straight through to Ash Wednesday. At least she had been able to catch one of the earlier parades with some co-workers. They collected a garbage bag worth of beads and other plastic trinkets.  
  
“Guardian…” whispered Ceeree from her pocket.  
  
“No,” she hissed, knowing exactly what the Kwami was trying to suggest.  
  
“But with all the costumes…”  
  
It was a good point, but Evelynn hadn’t gifted anyone with superpowers other than Howard because Dox could stay hidden in cyberspace while he saved the day. The moment a superhero made the news, her grandfather would send his mercenaries in hopes of tracking down the wielder of the Swan Miraculous. And if Swan Princess kept on showing up in the same places as Evelynn, it would start to look suspicious.  
  
Still…  
  
There was a police officer, a Detective Dupree, whose son was in a coma after getting hit by a drunk driver last Mardi Gras. She worked this Carnival like a machine, wanting to prevent anyone from having to go through what she did. She was at the hospital almost every day, visiting her son or working a case. Yesterday she was taking statements from the injured brought into the ER after a massive street brawl resulted in death. Detective Dupree’s intentions were pure—she wanted people to have fun, but she didn’t want any more victims. She was exhausted and human though, and Evelynn, who barely knew her, was worried about the woman. She had worked all night only to come straight to the hospital to sit with her son on her day off. Evelynn just spoke to her on the stairs after changing out of her scrubs, ignoring the glow of her cufflinks like she always did by shoving her hands deep into her pockets.  
  
Evelynn unsuccessfully tried to push the thought of transforming Detective Dupree from her mind the entire way home, so it came as a relief when she finally reached her apartment—there were plenty of things to distract her there. She flipped on the TV and popped a Hot Pocket into the microwave for dinner before grabbing her laptop. Ceeree took a little bubble bath in the sink while Evelynn checked her personal emails, then her Guardian emails from a heavily encrypted account Dox set up for her.  
  
Dr. Blaylock had sent Evelynn yet another candidate for the Rabbit Miraculous. This time it was Hugh Evans, a 20-year-old Australian who was starting his own NGO to provide aid and development to countries in need. Evelynn frowned. On the surface, the guy was everything Evelynn was looking for—kind, compassionate, chivalrous—but as she focused on him, her cufflinks didn’t glow as brightly as they had with Manny Rodriguez or herself. She decided to sit on it a while though, maybe have Dox run a background check. To be honest, Evelynn felt sick to her stomach every time she rejected one of Dr. Blaylock’s offerings. All the woman wanted to do was return home to be with her family, but it wasn’t safe as along as the Rabbit Miraculous remained buckled around her wrist.  
  
“Guardian,” said Ceeree, grabbing her attention as she wolfed down her Hot Pocket and burned her tongue on its molten core. He splashed water on the counter as he pointed at the TV. “Look.”  
  
The newscaster was covering the story of the brawl murder, which segued into data that showed that this had been the most violent Carnival on record. Evelynn stared at the numbers on the screen, feeling a little numb. She ended up slamming a hand against the power button to turn the TV off.  
  
“Fine,” she groused, dropping her plate in the sink for future Evelynn to wash and causing Ceeree to abandon his tub. Evelynn realized she probably wouldn’t get a better opportunity than this one anyway and it was difficult for her to not use her powers. Withholding them felt wrong. Selfish. The opposite of who she was meant to be. “I’ll do it. But just this once.” Even as she said it, she knew it was a lie.  
  
“Great!” said Ceeree as he tried to contain his excitement. “You won’t regret this, Guardian!” he added in such a way that made Evelynn wonder if she would, indeed, regret this. She pushed the intrusive thought from her mind.  
  
“Ceeree, spread my wings!”  
  
Transformed, Evelynn took a seat on her unmade bed, eyes fluttering closed as she rested her scepter in her lap. Had she not turned into Swan Princess, she would have fallen asleep instantly. Instead, she concentrated on all the intentions within her five mile radius. There were bad intentions—ones to lie, cheat, steal, even kill—right alongside the good ones. People intended to love, to honor promises, to pay it forward. As horrible as bad intentions were, it always warmed Evelynn’s heart that the majority of intentions she felt were good. It gave her faith in humanity. For the most part, people wanted to do good…even if they acted otherwise in the heat of the moment.  
  
It wasn’t difficult to find Detective Dupree in the mass of humanity. Her intentions were the clearest, the most succinct. Evelyn focused on her as she plucked a feather from her cape and held it up to her lips. Here was a woman who only wished to protect so everyone could have a good time. Evelynn would see to it that the detective got her wish as she imbued the feather and turned it white. With a slight puff, it went up and away, squeezing through the skylight and wafting away over the Big Easy.  
  
It took a bit longer than Evelynn expected, but the feather eventually found its mark, slipping into the festive string of tri-colored beads Detective Dupree wore around her neck as she held vigil at her son’s bedside. Before the accident, no one in her precinct loved Mardi Gras as much as she did.  
  
“Greetings, detective,” said Evelynn mildly, glowing wings appearing on either side of her face. Detective Dupree, who had been holding her son’s hand while she read to him the latest John Grisham novel, dropped her book in shock.  
  
“Who…who said that?” the woman wondered. Her hands flew to her head.  
  
“My name is Swan Princess, and I’ve established a temporary psychic link with you. I have read your intentions and they are pure. Would you be willing to become my knight? The French Quarter is in need of a hero such as yourself and I can grant you superpowers to supplement your skills. However, the choice is yours.”  
  
“I’ve been up for too long…”  
  
“If you believe this to be a dream or a delusion, it matters not. Please let me know if you wish to take on the mantle of Masquerade, Protector of Mardi Gras.”  
  
“O-okay…sure. Yes. Wait. No.”  
  
“No?” Evelynn had not been expecting this.  
  
“Is there some sort of catch?”  
  
“Ah, indeed. You only have 24-hours. Then you must meet me on the rooftop of Tulane Medical Center so I can change you back.”  
  
“…And nothing else?”  
  
“I trust you to serve and protect.”  
  
“Then…uh…I accept your proposal?” She tried again, more firm. “I accept your proposal.”

The detective was transformed in a whirlwind of swan feathers and Evelynn ended their contact. New Orleans was in good hands. Masquerade was a bit of a trickster, with [TIME STOPPING](https://powerlisting.fandom.com/wiki/Time_Stopping) as her main ability and a bit of [CELEBRATION MANIPULATION](https://powerlisting.fandom.com/wiki/Celebration_Manipulation) and [PARTY INDUCEMENT](https://powerlisting.fandom.com/wiki/Party_Inducement) thrown in for good measure. Evelynn would check in on her later, after she slept.  
  
Except…now she was a little too giddy to rest, even though she knew she needed it. She had done it! She had used her superhero powers as they were intended! She hadn’t felt this way since she transformed into Swan Princess to stop that mugging last year. She yearned to share this good news with someone, but the first people she thought of to tell—her grandfather, Libby, even Howard—were off the table. She held up her scepter though, thinking of Manny.  
  
Good to his word, General Taggert had introduced Evelynn to Manuel Rodriguez at Fort Lee early last year, shortly before he shipped out to Afghanistan. Like with Dr. Blaylock, she pretended she worked for the Guardian and was currently assisting him with his search for the missing Kwami. Manny wanted to help, but Evelynn assured him that he was doing exactly what the Guardian wanted him to do, using Dogstruction to dismantle bombs. She mentioned nothing of her grandfather, but did warn Manny that there were people out there who would try and steal his dog tags if given the chance. He vowed to protect them with his life and Evelynn checked in on him every now and then to make sure everything was going smoothly.  
  
Though Evelynn tried to keep things professional, it was difficult to talk to Manny and not become friends with him because he was so sociable. He was only a little bit older than Evelynn, but more self-possessed than she could ever hope to be. Most of that was because he had a wife and a son, but he also fought hard for every success in his life. Evelynn tried to do that too, but when the going got tough, her grandfather always swooped in to save the day, so it was essentially an exercise in futility. Luckily, Manny didn’t know that about her. He saw her as someone like him, a comrade-in-arms in a war against evil.  
  
It was nice.  
  
Nearly bursting at the seams, Evelynn glanced at the red numbers of her alarm clock. She was used to Central Daylight Time by now and knew she was 9 hours and 30 minutes behind Afghanistan. If she was lucky, she’d be able to catch Manny while he was transformed.  
  
Evelynn pushed the wings down on her scepter and her screen popped up. She scrolled from General Taggert to Perro Negro, the name Manny has chosen as his superhero alias. They were the only two contacts she had, which wasn’t much better than the contact list on her actual phone.  
  
Manny picked up after a few rings, holding the screen in his cuff close to his face, something he had trained himself to do so he wouldn’t be able to give away his position. With his strong jaw and five o’clock shadow, he looked the very picture of an action movie star. And with the black domino mask, he might as well have been Zoro.  
  
“ _Buenos días, Princesa Cisne_ ,” he said. She heard his tail thump as it wagged into something solid. “What’s up?”  
  
“You will be pleased to hear that I transformed someone today,” Evelynn announced.  
  
He broke into a smile too white to be natural, even though it was. “Ah! That’s great to hear. I knew you would.” He scrunched up half his face. “Well, eventually.”  
  
Talking to Manny about what she had done made Evelynn sure she had made the right choice. The way he encouraged and backed her up made her glad she had shared with him. Sometimes her anxiety got her too inside her own head.  
  
“I’ve got news too,” Manny told her when she finished her story of Detective Dupree. “I got a package! You should see the drawing my kid sent.”  
  
He moved, though the view of his face stayed the same. Eventually, he pulled forth a crumbled piece of paper and held it in front of his face, showing Evelynn a child’s drawing done with thick, colorful markers. There was a blue blotch of a stick figure standing beneath a poorly drawn rectangle on a stick. There were blooms of rainbow scribbles all around.  
  
“What do you think?” he asked, moving the paper next to his face as he beamed with pride. “Looks just like me, eh?”  
  
Evelynn snorted and ended up chuckling behind her gloved hand. Manny barked with laughed.  
  
“Ah, Diego’s a good kid,” he said, looking lovingly at the drawing. “Can’t believe he’s turning four already. I feel like it was just yesterday I held him in my arms…” He paused, some softness in his hazel eyes fading. “He’s driving Isa up the wall, always asking when I’ll be home. I’m trying to get a furlough so I can surprise him for his birthday. No guarantees though.”  
  
“I can speak to General Taggart if you so wish.”  
  
“Nah. If I can’t get it, it’s for a good reason. I’m just…I’m worried about Isa more than anything else.”  
  
Evelynn thought Manny would leave things there, as he always did whenever Isa came up, but after a bit of thought, he continued.  
  
“She’s sick, you know? Sick in the head,” he confided.  
  
“Oh!” Evelynn had her suspicions, of course, but she didn’t want to pry. The fact that Manny was telling her this meant something. She guessed they had finally reached that part of their friendship and she honestly wasn’t prepared. “I…I see.”  
  
“Some days are better than other days. _Mi mama_ checks in on her, makes sure she takes her pills, but sometimes she doesn’t…” Manny drifted off, a knot forming between his eyebrows. His eyes flicked back to Evelynn though and an idea started to form in his head. “ _Princesa_ , if it’s not too much to ask…would you check in on her too? I know you’re busy traveling and helping the Guardian, but if you’re ever in LA—”  
  
“It would be my pleasure,” said Evelynn promptly.  
  
“…You sure?”  
  
“I assure you, it would be no trouble at all. I promise.”  
  
This cheered him up instantly. “Thank you! You’re a true princess of the people.” Someone called out to Manny and he looked off-screen. “What…? Oh. Yes, sir.” He looked sheepishly at Evelynn. “Sorry I have to cut this short, but duty calls. Let me know how it goes with that hero you made!”  
  
He saluted her and the screen turned to black. Evelynn smiled at her reflection. There were times when she wondered why she rejected all of Dr. Blaylock’s submissions for Chosen Ones for the Rabbit Miraculous, but then she thought of Manny and realized that proper Chosen Ones were difficult to come by, but worth it in the end. She never had to worry about Wrekk. He was in the best of hands. Her grandfather would never be able to get to him as long as Manny was around. Whatever her grandfather had planned, he could not complete it without all seven of the Kwami. Manny might possibly be the only one who stood between him and world domination.  
  
The very thought of Evelynn’s grandfather extinguished her giddiness. The ache of weariness seeped back into her bones.  
  
“Fold my wings,” she said before collapsing face down on her pillow.  
  
She felt Ceeree slip off her Keds and the gentle weight of her sheet as he pulled it over her. She heard the swift click of the window fan as it buzzed to life, but, by then, she had already drifted off to sleep, too tired to even dream.

*   *   *

 ** _St. Lawrence of Brindsi Catholic Church_**  
**_Los Angeles, CA_**  
**_April 5, 2003  
  
_**There was a song Evelynn’s dad liked to listen to called “It Never Rains in Southern California.” He had it on record and would play it from time to time while he worked in his home office. Evelynn would hear it echoing up the stairs to their walkout basement. It was a song about failure, her dad explained to her once when she asked about the lyrics. They were dancing to it, Evelynn standing on top of her dad’s polished shoes as they swayed from side-to-side. He said it reminded him to keep in mind that nothing in life was failure-proof, so you had to be prepared for it. Whenever it rained, she thought of that song, thought of him. She remembered her parent’s funeral, where it was dry as a bone, and she cried because she had seen the movies—it was supposed to rain at funerals to show that everyone was sad, even the sky…yet it was just another beautiful day.  
  
The day of Manny’s funeral was cool and blustery, but still no rain. There was nothing to mark it as worse than any other day. Evelynn sat in the very last pew in the back of the church, intent on not standing out, but she was one of the only white people there. A couple of mourners kept on glancing over their shoulders at her, but she pretended not to notice, eyes glued to the large picture of Manny in his service uniform that had been set up on top of the closed casket. Next to it was draped an American flag.  
  
It was a mortar that got him. General Taggart called to let Evelynn know the full story. Manny and his team had just completed a bomb sweep when they were ambushed. Being bulletproof, he drew the fire away so the others could get to safety. When his five minutes were up, he sought refuge and probably tried to recharge Wrekk only for their hiding spot to be bombed. Evelynn blamed herself. She should've worked harder to figure out why she didn't detransform when using her powers but Manny did. She could've prevented this. She could've saved him.  
  
Manny’s death wasn’t news to Evelynn. The instant it happened, she felt it, like someone had nicked her heart with a scalpel. There was a pain in her chest, but not the kind that caused you to gasp and scream and pour out your tears until you could no longer breathe. It was gentle, like the sadness that overcame her from time to time in the wake of her parents’ deaths, when a stray thought fooled her into thinking they were still alive for a moment. “I can’t wait to tell Mom.” “Dad will love this.” She was in the middle of taking care of a particularly ornery patient when it happened though, one who believed they were dying at the slightest sign of suffering, so she pushed the feeling down and locked it away. Evelynn was an expert at that by now. It was only when she listened to the message General Taggart left on her scepter after her shift that Evelynn opened that door up again and saw it for what it was. Her comrade, her charge…gone.  
  
She hadn’t prepared for failure.  
  
Even worse, the Dog Miraculous was missing. No one knew exactly when Manny lost it, but a sandstorm had picked up in the area, so it was probably buried beneath tons of sand. Evelynn went to Afghanistan herself to look, but to no avail. She couldn’t sense Wrekk anywhere, which was to be expected—the death of his Chosen One sealed the Kwami up in his Miraculous. General Taggert assured her it would turn up eventually. Evelynn knew he was right, but worried about whose hands it would turn up in. It was one of the reasons why she was visiting Los Angeles at the moment. She hadn’t checked on her grandfather using Dox since Christmas. It was entirely possible Manny’s dog tags were already in his possession.  
  
The other reason, of course, was to attend Manny’s funeral. Part of her didn’t want to—who was she to him, really? He never knew her outside of her superhero persona and never realized she was the Guardian. He didn’t even know she was there the day Wrekk bonded with his dog tags. And if anyone questioned her about how she knew him, what would she even say? That they were pen pals? But he had asked her to check on his wife the next time she was in Los Angeles and a promise was a promise.  
  
Isabelle Rodriguez sat in the front row, wailing as the priest droned on in Spanish. While everyone else wore formal clothes in dark colors, she wore a rumpled floral blouse splattered with food, half tucked into a red maxi skirt. Evelynn didn’t know for sure, but suspected they were the clothes Isa had been wearing when she received the news of her husband’s death. Manny’s mother, Marta, sat next to Isa, holding her hand and wiping her daughter-in-law’s face with a yellowing embroidered handkerchief. And on the end sat little Diego, solemn and quiet, though he swung his feet and sometimes kicked the inside of the pew, resulting in his grandma giving him a sharp look. Evelynn wondered how much the boy knew. He was only four.  
  
No one was surprised when Isa ran at the casket and collapsed on top of it, knocking Manny’s picture down as she yelled and screamed. From what little Spanish Evelynn knew, the woman was railing at God for taking her husband away from her. Evelynn decided now was as good of a time as any to slip away. She didn’t want to get caught up in the crowd as they headed to the cemetery. She feared questions she didn’t have answers for.  
  
She visited Manny’s grave at the Los Angeles National Cemetery a couple of days later with Ceeree, when no one was around. She knew the way—it was right by UCLA’s campus and she had often used it as a landmark. Never in a million years did she think she would be visiting it one day, especially since it was near capacity. The tombstones looked like rows of perfect teeth as she made her way to one of the last plots. Manny’s grave had new grass smoothed over it, decorated with a little American flag and a bucket of roses.  
  
Evelynn knelt and put a hand on her friend’s name, Ceeree zipping out of her pocket and finding a place on her shoulder. She hadn’t brought any flowers, instead donating $10,000 anonymously in his name to the local VA, but now she wished she had. Her hands felt empty without them.  
  
“Manny,” she said, pausing to swallow. This was stupid, talking to a rock, but the words bubbled out. “Manny, it’s me. It’s, uh, Swan Princess. But my real name is Evelynn Ende and I’m…the Guardian. Yeah, that’s right. I’m sorry I lied to you. I just didn’t want my grandpa to use you to get to me. That’s another thing…my grandpa is the one after the Kwami. He hasn’t found any...yet, but some days I feel like it’s only a matter of time because…like with Wrekk. I don’t know where he is. I checked and my grandpa doesn’t have him, but now I’m afraid he’ll get to Wrekk first…But if he doesn’t—if I find him—I’m going to take good care of him. I promise. I’m going to find him a new Chosen One who will keep him safe. I have a stack of good candidates!” She had saved all of Dr. Blaylock’s submissions for the Chosen One for the Rabbit Miraculous. One of them was bound to be a fit for the Dog Miraculous. “Oh, and I saw your wife at your funeral,” she continued. “She’s…not doing too well. But I’m going to watch over her, okay? Her and Diego and your mom. I’m going to make sure they are well taken care of. I promise. For now, it looks like some of your family are going to stay a while before they head back to Mexico…”  
  
Evelynn drifted off, a tear rolling down her cheek.  
  
Ceeree gasped. “Don’t cry, Guardian!”  
  
“Why not?” Evelynn wondered, sniffing as her vision blurred. “I don’t have anything else to say. How terrible is that? He deserved much more than what he got. Much more than what I gave him.”  
  
“Don’t say that. You gave him a chance to be a hero.”  
  
_He died a hero._ Those had been General Taggart’s words. He thought they would comfort Evelynn, but they only made her think of her failures. It was because Manny was playing hero that he died. If she had never intervened and made sure he kept the Dog Miraculous, then he might still be alive. Marta wouldn’t have outlived her son, Isa wouldn’t have lost her husband, and Diego wouldn’t grow up without a father.  
  
Evelynn stood and looked up at the smoggy sky, smudged with a cloud here and there, then down the row—anywhere but at Manny’s headstone. A middle-aged woman and a young woman with a baby stroller stood a few rows down, arms looped around each other, holding each other up as they prayed over a grave.  
  
“May I say a few words?” wondered Ceeree. “Ah, I mean, if you’re done, that is.”  
  
Evelynn nodded, not trusting herself to speak.  
  
The Kwami floated over and perched atop the gravestone. He looked up. “Hi, Manny. I’m Ceeree. You don’t know me, but I’m Wrekk’s friend. I just wanted to let you know that you were great. You really were. The way you jumped into that pit of wreckage to rescue Wrekk…You were a hero before he even turned you into one.”  
  
Despite all previous inclinations, Evelynn found herself smiling a little.  
  
“Do you know how many people you saved as Perro Negro?” Ceeree asked, continuing. “The General estimated about a thousand people. A thousand people! Think about that. Thanks to you, a thousand people were able to get back to their families or friends on a day that could’ve ended very differently. And, in the end, you sacrificed yourself so your team could get to safety, so make that a thousand and eleven people. I hope the next user of the Dog Miraculous is as amazing as you were.”  
  
With a sigh, Evelynn held out her hand to Ceeree and he floated over to her palm. She gave him a gentle pat on the head and kissed his cheek. “Thanks, Ceeree.”  
  
He honked, surprised and shocked. Completely bowled over, in fact. “You’re pleased?”  
  
Evelynn was reminded of Dox telling her years ago that, had Howard known about the dangers of being a superhero, he would have still chosen to become one. Manny was the same way. That was the true mark of a hero—someone who was willing to risk their life and make that sacrifice. She realized with a start that that was what all Dr. Blaylock’s submissions were missing—none of them were willing to sacrifice everything.

*   *   *

 ** _Ashley's Hallmark Shop_**  
**_Rochester, MN_**  
**_January 31, 2004_**  
  
A sudden gust of wind propelled Evelynn into the Hallmark. She almost choked on the heated air, but she gulped it down greedily instead, hoping it would return feeling to her fingers and toes. The two block walk from the bus stop had really done a number on her.  
  
A bored teenager at the front counter looked up only briefly before rolling her eyes and returning to her magazine. Evelynn had been in Rochester for all of one day and discovered the populace oddly blasé about the freezing temperatures. Here she was, wrapped in a goose-down jacket that went down passed her knees, with a scarf, hat, and gloves, while some Minnesotans were wandering around in shorts. People gave her one look and knew she wasn’t from around there, but it was 50/50 whether they’d ask her where she was from or silently judge her.  
  
“Uh…I was told I could find postcards of Rochester here?” Evelynn said, pulling down her hood and scarf, and then yanking off her bobble hat. Her hair crackled with static electricity.  
  
The teen looked up sharply. “You want a postcard? Of Rochester.”  
  
Evelynn nodded.  
  
“Rochester, Minnesota?”  
  
“That’s where we are, isn’t it?”  
  
The girl turned Evelynn’s words over for a moment, as if deciding whether or not to care. In the end, she took a sip from her Five Guys cup and resumed her magazine reading, waving Evelynn off. “I think there’s some in the back corner. I don’t know.”  
  
Evelynn made her way to the back to have a look, stomping her feet a bit to rid them of their numbness. Everywhere she turned there were hearts and flowers. It took her a moment to realize that Valentine’s Day was coming up.  
  
The tip of Ceeree’s head nudged its way out of Evelynn’s pocket as she reached a corner with a display case that read “Rochester: Med City.” Seeing that no one was around, he flew up, tail feathers a mess.  
  
“I thought the plan was to unpack?” he said.  
  
“I don’t start until Monday.” Evelynn paged through the postcards. Mayo Clinic. The Zumbro River. Mayo Clinic. Quarry Hill Park. Mayo Clinic. Downtown. Mayo Clinic.  
  
“Yes, Guardian, but…are you going to do this every single time?”  
  
“What? It’s tradition.”  
  
The Kwami looped over and sat on Evelynn’s shoulder as she examined a postcard depicting the Chateau Theatre, which had been converted into a Barnes & Noble.  
  
“It made sense when you were in a major city,” said the creature. “But…Rochester?”  
  
“Rochester is a great city!” Evelynn insisted. “The third largest in Minnesota.”  
  
“There’s nothing here but the hospital.”  
  
“Oh, yeah?” Evelynn plucked a postcard of a squat, sprawling building paneled in blue. She shoved it at Ceeree. “What about the IBM facility? Huh? Besides…” She added it to her hand—she liked how the building seemed to reflect the blue sky above and its dichotomy with the green trees that crowded in front of it. Blue and green were her favorite colors. They looked really good together. “Howard likes getting these.”  
  
“Then you must like him.”  
  
Evelynn scrunched up her face, ready to be offended, but found the feeling missing. She sighed, putting all the postcards back. “He’s been a good friend to me. He’s kept in touch, unlike _some_ people. But…c’mon. Really? This is Howard we're talking about. _Howard_.”  
  
“You visit him all the time.”  
  
“I visit Dox. Big difference.” One she controlled. The other she didn’t dare.  
  
“Very true, Guardian. I misspoke.”  
  
Evelynn paused and cast a side-eyed glance at the Kwami. He blinked back at her. It was unnerving how often he agreed with her. It made her wonder if he truly felt that way or was just pretending to for her sake. Even after all these years, he still desperately wanted her to like him. No amount of assuring him that she did seemed to change his mind.  
  
“This one,” she decided, grabbing a vintage postcard with ‘Greetings from Rochester Minnesota’ stamped across the front. A landmark filled in each letter of the word ‘Rochester’—the Plummer Building, Old City Hall, Hotel Carlton, St. Mary’s…  
  
“Excellent choice, Guardian!” spouted her companion.  
  
“You would’ve said that about any one I picked.”  
  
“Because you always make the right choice!”  
  
“That’s not…that’s not even remotely true.”  
  
“Whatever you say, Guardian!”

_*   *   *_

**_Marta Rodriguez’s House_**  
**_Los Angeles, CA_**  
**_July 22, 2005  
  
_**“You have arrived at your destination,” Evelynn’s TomTom said.  
  
Evelynn put the Lincoln in park, wishing she had borrowed a car from someone other than her grandfather. Even his cheapest one was too fancy. He believed she needed it to drive to the city for Libby’s bachelorette party though, so he thought the Lincoln suited her needs just fine. And while it was true—Evelynn couldn’t believe her college roommate was getting married next month—it wasn’t the whole story. She had gone to Howard’s apartment first to get the latest news from Dox before releasing him from her powers.  
  
The news hadn’t been good.  
  
There had been a few sightings of Kwami up in Canada that her grandfather was following up on. He dispatched a litany of private detectives to find out more. And then there was the fact that Isabelle Rodriguez was missing. Marta had filed a missing person’s report two weeks ago. Apparently the woman just up and left. Dox tracked her to a Greyhound bus station in Tulsa and then her trail went cold. Diego had been sent to live with his grandma for the time being, which was where Evelynn was now.  
  
Marta Rodriguez lived in a quaint little Spanish-style house with a big tree in the front yard, the grates on the windows shaped like eight-pointed stars. The stucco was painted such a pale shade of mint that it was difficult to discern the green hue at first glance. White, pink, and red flowers bloomed along the chain-link fence. It was a lovely little place, but worn down like the rest of the street.  
  
Running her hands along the steering wheel, Evelynn closed her eyes and concentrated. She was in Watts, which was a bad part of town, but the intentions here were no different than anywhere else. She pinpointed Marta, with her intentions to care for and shield her grandson, whom she loved very much. Evelynn’s cufflinks only glowed weakly though because Marta’s good intentions only went as far as her family. She cared little for everyone else. The whole neighborhood could go up in flames for all she cared, as long as she and Diego were safe.  
  
Evelynn left her car, her head on a swivel as she hopped Marta’s gate and bypassed the garbage bin sitting on the path. She sought refuge in the shadows of the covered brick patio before coaxing Ceeree out of her pocket.  
  
“Good idea, Guardian!” said the creature, even though he twitched nervously. “Straight to the source.”  
  
Evelynn sighed. The more her Kwami supported something, the more she thought it was a bad idea. It was too late to back out now though. “Ceeree, spread my wings!”  
  
The light from Evelynn’s transformation did not go unnoticed. She heard rushed footsteps and then someone shouting at her in Spanish from behind the door. “ _¿Quién está ahí? ¡Déjame en paz! Esta es propiedad privada._ ”  
  
Evelynn broke the lock as she turned the handle and shoved her way inside. The squat Latina woman with fire in her eyes and silvering bedraggled hair tried to fight her at first, but dropped away when she found her uninvited guest implacable. Her jaw dropped for only a moment, but she was a practical woman. To her, it was much more likely that Evelynn was a weirdo in a costume rather than an actual superhero. She rushed to the phone hanging on the wall and started to dial.  
  
“Is dare?” she wondered, switching to English. She had difficulty with it, but her sheer confidence carried her through. “You break into the house of the old woman and scare her? What a costume is that! White people…”  
  
“Good evening, Marta,” said Evelynn with a curtsy. “My name is Swan Princess and your son was a friend of mine.”  
  
Marta paused to stare, then tossed her head back to laugh.  
  
Evelynn continued, undeterred. “Manuel asked that I check up on his family and I admit I have done a poor job of it. I have returned after being away for a time to find Isabelle missing and you…you have recently been diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer’s.”  
  
“9-1-1, what’s your emergency?” asked a soothing voice on the other end of the phone, but Marta didn’t answer. Instead, she glanced down the hallway, the familiar light of a flickering TV at the end of it, before slamming the receiver down. She ushered Evelynn into the cramped kitchen to the right. The green appliances were all from the 70s.  
  
“What you want?” she demanded.  
  
Evelyn lowered her eyes to the scuffed vinyl floor, a geometric pattern in brown and off-white. When Dox first showed her Marta’s medical records, she had yelled at him for crossing the line. Doctor-patient privilege existed for a reason. Dox agreed, explaining he would’ve never violated Marta’s privacy like that if she hadn’t factored into his surveillance of Evelynn’s grandfather first.  
  
“It saddens me to hear of your condition,” started Evelynn. “I wished to pay for your current and future care, for that is what Manuel would have wanted, but…it appears someone else already has.”  
  
Marta took in a sharp intake of breath and held her hand to her side as if she had developed a stitch, but said nothing. Evelynn continued.  
  
“Perhaps this is presumptuous to ask, but why?”  
  
Again, the woman was silent, her weathered face as still as if it were carved from wood. Evelynn really didn’t want to use a feather on her to gain her cooperation.  
  
“I must warn you,” Evelynn said. “The man who has agreed to pay for your healthcare…he is dangerous—”  
  
“You think I do not know!?” snapped Marta suddenly.  
  
Evelynn was speechless for a moment. Her mind grasped for words, but Marta’s intensity seemed to have shut them out.  
  
“ _Abuela…?_ ” came a tiny voice from down the hall, breaking the silence. Evelynn would’ve thought it was a little girl if she didn’t know it was Diego, his voice was so high-pitched.  
  
Marta wrinkled her nose at Evelynn as if attracting Diego’s attention was her fault. “ _Solo estoy haciendo café, mi ratón. Vuelve a tu programa._ ”  
  
“Okay.”  
  
There was a soft pad of footsteps as the boy turned around and returned to watching TV. Since Marta didn’t have it in her heart to lie to her grandson, she grabbed a battered pot hanging from the wall, filled it with water from the spitting tap, and tossed it on a coil with a clang. Pulling a matchbook out of her pocket, she placed it on the counter. She tried to coax the stove to life on its own first, but that only made the kitchen reek with gas. Giving up, she searched her pockets and then some cabinets. “ _¿Dónde hizo yo los pongo...?_ ”  
  
Evelynn knotted her eyebrows together as she realized Marta was looking for the matches she just put down. She picked them up. “Allow me,” she said, lighting the stove with ease. Marta’s weathered face warped with embarrassment and sorrow as it dawned on her what had just happened. Evelynn pretended not to notice. “And allow me to pay for your care instead. I cannot allow you to be indebted to that man.”  
  
Marta leaned against the counter, her eyes fluttering closed. Haggard was the best way to describe her, like a used rag worn thin. She was once very powerful and even knew how to box, having been trained alongside her twin brother. Now she worked as a cleaning lady at a motel.  
  
“No,” she said.  
  
“No?”  
  
Her eyes snapped back open, an encroaching fear behind the fire. “He send a man when I bury my son. He come up to me and say he know I sick. He know Isa is fun in the head. He give money, but only if I am agree to give him the dog tag of my son if it return. I ask why…why dog tag? He do not say, so I say no. He look at Diego. Ask, ‘What will happen to him?’” Marta shivered at the memory. “I know the kind. In my hometown in _Méjico_ we call them _la fuerza negra_ —the black force. Demon. You do no say no to a demon. So I say yes.”  
  
Her words shredded Evelynn’s heart. How could her grandfather live with himself, intimidating a grieving woman at her son’s graveside by threatening her grandson like that? She tried to console herself with the fact that at least he was willing to take care of Manny’s family, even if he was only after the Dog Miraculous. He would never get his hands on it if it was recovered by the right people, but if it were found by someone who did not recognize the dog tags for what they were, there was a chance they would be sent to Marta. Evelynn’s grandfather was simply covering all his bases.  
  
Marta seemed intent on getting the coffee together, bustling over to the corner were a large burlap bag lay hunched over. It was stamped with a seal and words incomprehensible to Evelynn. Inside were coffee beans, which Marta scooped into a hand grinder. She handed it off to Evelynn.  
  
“Become useful,” she demanded, so Evelynn got to work.  
  
“Please do not give the dog tags to him,” she insisted. “They hold powerful magic.”  
  
“ _Ay_. But for my grandson, I do everything.”  
  
“I can protect him. You have my word.”  
  
“Protect?” Marta only tossed her head back to laugh again. She took the grinder from Evelynn, the coffee beans now a fine dust. She dumped them in the boiling water. “I am afraid of _la fuerza negra_. I am no afraid of you, _ángel_.”  
  
Part of Evelynn wanted to argue, her fingers itching to pull a feather, to force the woman to trust her, but she knew Marta couldn’t afford that. Besides, who was Evelynn kidding? She couldn’t even check-up on Manny’s family properly, much less protect his son. As much as it pained her to admit it, Marta and Diego were probably safest in her grandfather’s care, where he believed everything was under his control. If—and that was a huge if—Marta was sent the dog tags and she gave them to Evelynn’s grandfather, Evelynn could always steal them from him. He had no defense against Swan Princess.  
  
“Very well,” said Evelynn. “I hope you reconsider, but I understand.”  
  
“Reconsider what?” wondered the woman.  
  
A heaviness draped over Evelynn’s shoulders like her cape. She bit her lip and avoided eye contact, looking up at the cracked florescent light inset in the ceiling. A couple of flies had met their doom inside of it.  
  
She wouldn’t wish Alzheimer’s on anyone, not even her worse enemy.  
  
“I was just on my way out,” she said with a curtsy. “Thank you for your time, Marta.”  
  
“ _De nada_.”

*   *   *

 ** _Old Ebbitt Grill_**  
**_Washington, D.C._**  
**_October 12, 2011  
  
_**The restaurant was empty when Evelynn arrived. She didn’t notice at first, busy fighting with her umbrella, no doubt to the secret enjoyment of the hostess. But once her umbrella was safety stowed in her purse, she noticed the eerie quiet. The restaurant was bereft of the tinkling of silverware, the low murmur of voices.  
  
“Oh my God,” said Evelynn, her panic rising. She had been in D.C. long enough now to recognize the signs. The man at the door hadn’t done a very good job of keeping the riff-raff like her out. “Is there an event going on? I could’ve sworn—” She pulled out her phone and looked up the email from her grandfather. Old Ebbitt Grill was located right across the street from the White House. If the President was going to be there any minute…  
  
“Evelynn?”  
  
She looked up to see her grandfather standing on the other side of the restaurant behind a plant-filled partition.  
  
“Evelynn Ende?” asked the hostess, as if she didn’t already know. “Right this way.”  
  
Evelynn followed the girl, passing empty tables adorned with old-fashioned lamps and crisp, white tablecloths. Even with all the gilded mirrors and beautiful pastoral scenes on the walls, Evelynn felt claustrophobic. She had picked Old Ebbitt Grill on purpose because it was old and fancy, but not outrageously expensive—a good place for her and her grandfather to meet in the middle. He, apparently, thought otherwise.  
  
“Evelynn, my dear!” said her grandfather, all smiles as he enveloped her in a hug. To the untrained eye, he looked amazing for 77, but Evelynn knew better. He was exhausted. She could tell by the way he leaned into her and lingered before pulling away. “Are you a sight for sore eyes!”  
  
“What did you do, buy the restaurant?” Evelynn wondered dryly as she took her seat across from him. A waiter appeared out of nowhere to attempt to put her napkin on her lap, but she was too quick and did it herself. He awkwardly pulled back and proceeded to pour her a glass of water from the canister on the table as if that had been his plan all along.  
  
Her grandfather laughed. “Just for the night. I know you wanted to go out to eat, but I always like a little bit of privacy.”  
  
“Well, I’m glad this worked out. Is Ben with you?”  
  
“He’s with the car.” Evelyn gave him a look. “Don’t worry,” your grandfather insisted. “We’ll send food out to him. I just don’t trust the people in this town.”  
  
Evelynn busied herself with the wine list. She could order something cheap, but she knew her grandfather would insist on ordering the most expensive bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon for the table no matter what she did, so there was no point.  
  
“What brings you to town?” she said with practiced idle curiosity, because she knew exactly why her grandfather was here. Two of her most recent superheroes—President Patriot and Amazonia—had made a huge splash. Her grandfather knew without a doubt that the Swan Miraculous was in use in the area. She tugged at her sleeves uncomfortably, even though she wasn’t wearing her cufflinks. They were safely stowed away in a lockbox back at her apartment. She never wore them when she was going to be anywhere near her grandfather since he would recognize them instantly, but she still worried.  
  
“Can’t an old man visit his granddaughter?” her grandfather wondered, hurt.  
  
Evelynn’s nostrils flared. “Don’t lie to me. If it’s work, it’s work.”  
  
“I can’t get anything past you these days, can I?” He slumped in his seat a little. “I’m sorry, Evelynn. I never want you to think you come second.”  
  
“It’s fine. Really. I know what it’s like to have a stressful job. Maybe it’s not the same kind of stress, but…yeah.”  
  
Evelynn’s brain was all muddled. She was on swing shift, so her hours were odd, and she kept on covering for other nurses because she felt bad for them. One had to skip out just last night because she found out her boyfriend was in jail. Evelynn never had a spare moment to herself anymore. When she wasn’t working or asleep, she was scouring for a new hero, currently one who would put an end to the rash of break-ins that had been plaguing her neighborhood.  
  
Her grandfather frowned, eyes filling with pity. “I’ve been meaning to talk to you about this.”  
  
“About what?”  
  
“You’ve been a traveling nurse for, what? Eleven years now?”  
  
“Has it really been that long…?” To Evelynn, it felt like it was just yesterday when she picked up her first assignment in Chicago.  
  
Her grandfather reached across the table and grasped her hand. “Maybe…maybe it’s time you came home.”  
  
The thought was a foreign concept to Evelynn. Home? She couldn’t go home. She would only be putting Ceeree in danger, keeping him so close to her grandfather, and how would she locate the other Kwami? Yes, it was taking much longer than Evelynn had ever anticipated to find them, but she caught hints of them from time-to-time. Roadd had even formed a Miraculous earlier this year ( **Monday, May 30, 2011, 8:32:02 AM MDT** ) out of someone’s eyebrow ring. She just hoped she got to him and his holder before her grandfather did.  
  
“I can’t,” she said finally.  
  
“Evelynn, you’ve proven your point. You’re your own woman. But you’re not a young woman anymore.”  
  
“Thanks.” Evelynn rolled her eyes. Thirty-two wasn’t _that_ old.  
  
“What I mean to say is…All this traveling, unable to put down roots—I’m worried about you.”  
  
“Grandpa…”  
  
“Come back to California. I can pull a couple of strings, get you a permanent nursing job anywhere you want.” It took him a moment to realize his mistake and he hurried to correct it. “Or I’m sure any place would be happy to hire you without any input from me. I just…I miss you, my dear.”  
  
“I miss you too,” said Evelynn. She meant it with every fiber of her being, but not in the same way he did. She missed a grandfather she could never have back, the one she hid nothing from, who wasn’t trying to hunt her down to pry her Miraculous off her wrists. “And I appreciate your offer. I really do.” She gently slid her hand away from his. “But I’m going to have to decline. I’m doing a lot of good, Grandpa. I’m going to go until I can’t go anymore.”  
  
He rubbed his temple with one hand and motioned to the waiting waiter with the other. “You’re stubborn like your father. Well, if I can’t convince you…How does a nice Cab sound?”  
  
The rest of the dinner was delightful, or as delightful as dinner with your mortal enemy who was also your loving grandfather could be. They talked about Evelynn’s goddaughter Lucy, who recently got accepted to UCLA. She planned to follow in Evelynn’s footsteps and become a nurse. Ben could not be prouder. They discussed how bad they thought the hurricane season was going to be on the East Coast. Evelynn even taught her grandfather about the new Fantasy Football league she was in with some co-workers, but he always seemed to turn the topic of conversation back to the idea of Evelynn coming home. It was almost a relief when dinner drew to a close.  
  
“It’s late. Let me drive you home,” her grandfather offered.  
  
“It’s fine. I’ll just grab an Uber.”  
  
“Nonsense! I’m staying at the Four Seasons. It’s on my way. Besides, don’t you want to see Ben?”  
  
There was just no winning against her grandfather. Evelynn grudgingly agreed.  
  
“Ben!” she cried as the familiar figure of her grandfather’s bodyguard stepped out of a black Cadillac with tinted windows as they approached. She darted out from under her grandfather’s golf umbrella into the drizzle to give him a hug.  
  
The years had unfortunately not been kind to Ben. He was still as muscular as ever, but there was a haunted look in his eyes that made Evelynn wonder what exactly her grandfather had him doing.  
  
“Ev! I was hoping you’d come out and say hi,” he said.  
  
“We’re going to drop her off,” Evelynn’s grandfather explained, shielding Evelynn with his umbrella again. Ben opened the back door for them, ushering them inside.  
  
Evelynn stared out the window the whole way home, monuments flashing past as she traced raindrops with her finger as they slid down the pane. They glinted like emeralds, rubies, and topazes by the glow of the ever-changing stoplights as she made mental notes. When she got home, she’d have to look for another traveling nursing position. It was a shame. She really like D.C. and was hoping to stay a few weeks longer. Amazonia was doing a wonderful job protecting women from sexual assault. One of her patients at the hospital was being moved to hospice soon and she wanted to be there for him because he didn’t have any family. But life never went to plan. She knew that better than anyone.  
  
Ben came to a stop in front of a bright yellow row house with a black awning that read _The Chakra Room_. In the front window was a big sign advertising tarot card readings. Evelynn became thoughtful whenever she saw it. She lived in the apartment above the shop, but only because the owner and landlady, Mrs. White, deemed her acceptable via tarot.  
  
“I’ve had to turn away every tenant so far,” she bragged to Evelynn while she laid out six cards in a cross pattern and four along the side, her multitude of bracelets clacking together. “Bad chakra.”  
  
“Of course,” said Evelynn, trying to hide a smile. She had read the women’s intentions and she simply wanted more money so she could expand her stock of healing crystals.  
  
Mrs. White flipped over the two cards in the center. “Mmm. The Ten of Wands and the Hermit. Just like I thought,” she said. “This is your present and the challenges you face. You feel burdened, you never have time to relax. Your calling is asking a lot of you—too much, in fact. You are searching for something, but it is difficult for me to discern what.”  
  
Evelynn felt her heart speed up. She thought tarot cards were a bunch of mumbo-jumbo, but Mrs. White was right on the money. If she flipped over the next cards and somehow discerned that Evelynn was searching for clones of ancient creatures that gifted superpowers, she was going to have a panic attack. When the woman flipped the next two cards over, it was difficult to read her make-up caked face. Evelynn looked down at Ceeree hiding in her pocket and they exchanged nervous glances.  
  
“We have some opposing cards here—The Five of Cups and…” She looked up at Evelynn and gave her a knowing smile. “The Lovers.”  
  
Evelynn laughed out of relief, but Mrs. White took it differently. She scowled.  
  
“Don’t be derisive now, luv. No doubt you are a very career-oriented woman, being a nurse and all, but, best case scenario, you will find love. And it only makes sense. Opposing cards are all about balance.” She tapped the card that showed a figure draped in black, the Five of Cups. “It will balance out your past loss.”  
  
Her words conjured up images of Evelynn’s parents. Her father, clean-cut and smiling and smelling of his mango beech wood cologne. Her mother, beautiful and frazzled and singing all the words wrong to the songs on the radio. Evelynn began to tear up, reminded of the ten years they had together…and all the rest they wouldn’t.  
  
“Now, now, luv. Don’t despair,” said Mrs. White, handing Evelynn a box of tissues. “It seems you’ve gone through some rough break-ups, but the right man will hopefully come along.”  
  
Evelynn blinked in disbelief before wiping her eyes. How could Mrs. White be so right but so wrong at the same time?  
  
“I’ll believe it when I see it,” said Evelynn. She never said no to a date, but she was never in a place long enough to have a boyfriend. By this point she decided she was just going to die an old maid and she was perfectly okay with that—one less thing to worry about.  
  
“Well, let’s see…Your recent past and immediate future will give us better insight.” Mrs. White flipped over the last two cards in the cross. “The Six of Swords and the Three of Wands. Hmmm…where were you before D.C.?”  
  
“Detroit.”  
  
“Things didn’t go well there.”  
  
Evelynn scrunched up her face as she remembered. Hokss had been right there. She had sensed him. But her patient was going into cardiac arrest and, by the time she helped the doctor stabilized him, the Kwami was gone. She took time off to search for him, even transformed her lovely mechanic into Automo-Bill, a Transformers-esque superhero who picked up the calls the Detroit Police Department dropped, to attract his attention, but to no avail. Hokss was gone.  
  
“That boy broke your heart,” decided Mrs. White. Well, Hokss was a _male_ Kwami, and the youngest one, so she wasn’t wrong. “You were sad, of course, but you recovered and moved on to here. And it looks like, at least from my reading, that you made the right choice! D.C. will be good for you. You will be given the opportunity to take a step back and gain perspective. You will develop a new vision for your life. But you must be fearless! Don’t be afraid to take chances.” Evelynn nodded. She _had_ been thinking of maybe transforming more people, but, once again, Mrs. White brought it back to her love life. “Maybe try online dating? My nephew was telling me all about this new app called Tinder—”  
  
“What about those other four cards?” Evelynn asked quickly.  
  
“Oh, the staff! Yes, yes. See, the cross…” She waved her hand over the cards she had already turned over. “Represents what is happening in your life at the time of this reading. These four cards, known as the staff, reveal the mechanisms of the auras at work in your life. What is pushing you forward? What is holding you back?”  
  
“I’d be curious to find out.”  
  
“Ah, what an inquisitive spirit you are! First we’re going to look at internal and external forces.” The cards revealed both featured swords. “The Eight of Swords…” observed Mrs. White. “Do you feel lost, confused, and powerless, luv?”  
  
“Er…yeah. Actually.”  
  
“You keep on trying, but you don’t succeed. I would encourage you not to give up!” She was referring to dating again, Evelynn realized. “But it appears you’ve closed yourself off instead. The Two of Swords tells me that there is a truth about your situation that you’re not willing to accept. What do you think it could be?”  
  
_That I’ll never find the Kwami? That I’ll never be able to protect them? That my grandfather is evil and I should’ve warned everyone about him a long time ago?_ “It could be a lot of things.”  
  
“Then let’s see where this will all lead, shall we?”  
  
Mrs. White flipped the last two cards and silence filled the room. They were both facing Evelynn, so she could read their titles—The Devil and The Hanged Man.  
  
“Um…that’s not good,” Evelynn pointed out.  
  
“No,” agreed Mrs. White. She started to twist one of her rings around her finger. “But it’s not what you think. The Devil represents oppression, greed, ignorance, and hopelessness. It is also in position 9—that represents your hopes and fears. Oh, luv, it is very clear to me that you’re afraid you’ll never get married.”  
  
Evelyn felt as though her eyes might roll right out of her head. She had a lot of fears, but not getting married had never been one of them. The fate of the world rested on her shoulders, suffocating her, as she stood between her grandfather and absolute power. Finding a significant other paled in importance by comparison. But maybe there was something to these tarot cards—even if Mrs. White was clearly reading them wrong. She felt oppressed by her duty. It was her grandfather’s greed, his thirst for power that frightened her. She had no clue where the Kwami were. Some days it felt like her mission was completely hopeless.  
  
“What about the Hanged Man?” Evelynn prompted, nudging the card a bit. It depicted a man, a saint, hanging upside-down from a tree.  
  
“See, this is where it gets tricky. This…is the final outcome. Of everything. I was hoping it would be the Two of Cups. Then I could assure you that you have nothing to worry about, that you will get married someday, but the Hanged Man…it is the most mysterious card in the deck. A paradox.”  
  
“What does it mean?”  
  
“At its base? It represents letting go, reversing, suspending action, and sacrifice, but I’m at a bit of a loss about how it ties to you on your journey to find love.”  
  
“Maybe because I'm not on a journey to find love!?” Evelynn muttered derisively underneath her breath.  
  
Mrs. White peering at her over her cheaters. “What was that, luv?” she asked.  
  
“Nothing! Just…uh…give its interpretation your best shot.”  
  
“Hmmmm. Very well. Say life is a game. It’s not, but say it is. You are playing against an opponent. You want to win. But the only way to win is to stop trying to win. Oh! Yes! That’s it. If you ever hope to find the man of your dream, you must stop looking for him!”  
  
“What!? No, go back! Forget about my love life for a second!”  
  
“But—”  
  
“Tell me more about winning by stopping trying to win.”  
  
“Uh…Well, essentially, the best way to approach a problem might be the opposite of what you think it is. We can move forward by standing still. By suspending time, we can have all the time in the world.”  
  
“If you love someone, set them free.”  
  
“Now you’re getting it, luv! Mmm…what interesting chakra you have. How much did you say you were willing to pay for the apartment again?”  
  
Mrs. White had been helpful to Evelynn in ways neither of them could’ve predicted. After the Detroit setback, Evelynn felt like giving up, but the reading renewed her vigor. All these years she had been playing it safe and nothing had really changed. Dr. Blaylock still hadn’t found a suitable Chosen One for the Rabbit Miraculous. The Dog Miraculous was still missing. None of the other Kwami had been located. Everything Evelynn had set out to do remained unaccomplished. So it was time to mix things up—despite her inclination to avoid taking risks, she created more superheroes, ones who didn’t hide, even though she knew it would attract her grandfather’s attention. Because if they attracted his attention, surely they would attract the Kwami’s attention as well.  
  
“Are you absolutely sure I can’t convince you to come home?” her grandfather asked her for the millionth time, bringing her back to the present.  
  
“I’ll see you for Thanksgiving,” she told him, kissing him on the cheek. “Bye Ben!”  
  
“You take care of yourself, Ev,” said the driver.  
  
“You too!”  
  
Jumping out of the car, Evelynn made her way to the gate that blocked off the entrance to her apartment from the sidewalk. Ben tried to wait, but Wisconsin Avenue was a busy street and the cars behind him started to honk. She waved them away, watching the headlights recede into the darkness before she lifted her key to the lock. Only…it was busted. Eyebrows knotting, Evelynn swung the gate back and forth, its hinges whining softly.  
  
“No!” she realized, darting through it and finding her door in the same state as her gate. Tearing up the stairs, she found her whole apartment ransacked. There wasn’t much to take since she didn’t see the need for anything expensive when she was transient, but her TV was gone, as was her laptop that had been charging on the breakfast bar. She didn’t care about those things though—they could be easily replaced.  
  
She pounded down the hall to her bedroom to find her clothes from her closet dumped out onto the floor. Atop the nest sat her lock box, forced open, all her cash and jewelry gone.  
  
The Swan Miraculous.  
  
Ceeree.  
  
Gone.  
  
“Tell him you’re sick,” Ceeree had told her earlier as she got ready to go to dinner with her grandfather, as if he knew something terrible was going to happen. “He shouldn’t have shown up out of the blue like this anyway.”  
  
“I want to see him.”  
  
“I know, Guardian. But…”  
  
Evelynn didn’t have time for this. She was running late as it was. “Spit it out, Ceeree.” He never liked to say when he disagreed with her plans.  
  
“I don’t like to be separated from you.”  
  
Evelynn stopped pushing pins into her hair for a moment and turned to the Kwami. He had grabbed his tail feathers and was hugging them to himself. He looked down as he floated lower than normal, as if his sorrow was physically weighing him down.  
  
“You’re sweet,” Evelynn told him, patting him on his head. He honked a little in surprise, not expecting the gesture. “I’ll be fine and so will you. I’ll be back before you know it! And then we can transform Mr. Carroll into The Watchman.” He was a concerned community leader who owned a watch repair down the street, the perfect candidate to protect Georgetown from burglars. “How does that sound?”  
  
“Very good, Guardian!”  
  
Evelynn held up her sleeve, fingers poised to remove her left cufflink. “Ready to go?”  
  
He smoothed his feathers and nodded, a big smile on his face.  
  
She had given him false assurances. She had let him down.  
  
She hadn’t prepared for failure.  
  
Evelynn hadn’t had a panic attack in years, having finally gotten a handle on her stress with a combination of exercise and therapy, but there was nothing she could do to prevent this one. It was a solid hour before she was able to calm herself down long enough to call the police. Two officers were dispatched to her apartment. Mrs. White was also notified and she arrived in a stunningly age-inappropriate silk gown and robe that did no favors, for herself or the people around her.  
  
“I knew something bad was going to happen!” she bragged triumphantly to one of the cops. “Uranus is in retrograde and Venus entered Sagittarius on the seventh. The signs were all there.”  
  
Evelynn sat on the plaid couch she bought off Criagslist, shock blanket on her shoulders as she stared at the water stains on her glass coffee table. The other cop was just finishing up getting a list of stolen items from her. Evelynn rattled them off in a dreamlike state. The whole time she was thinking that this couldn’t possibility have happened to her. As soon as everyone was gone, she would put on her cufflinks and become Swan Princess and all would be right with the world.  
  
“This matches the M.O. of the other break-ins in the area,” said the officer. “Odd about your lockbox though. Usually it’s just tech—computers, smart phones, TVs—”  
  
Evelynn was roused from her stupor. “What?”  
  
“I said, they don’t usually go after jewelry, but, hey, probably a theft of convenience. They probably saw your lockbox and thought they’d try their luck.”  
  
The police officers left shortly after, Evelynn’s mind buzzing.  
  
Maybe this wasn’t random happenstance after all.  
  
“I’ll send someone by in the morning to fix the gate and your locks,” said Mrs. White, rubbing Evelynn’s shoulder. “But you shouldn’t stay here tonight, luv. Why don’t you come home with me? I’ll make you a cuppa.”  
  
“My…my grandfather is in town, actually,” said Evelynn, the gears of her brain cranking to life. “He has a room at the Four Seasons.”  
  
“Oh, my! Fancy, fancy…”  
  
“Could I get a ride?”  
  
Evelynn tried calling her grandfather on the way over, but it went straight to voicemail. Whatever he was currently doing, he did not want to be bothered. She tried Ben next, who picked up on the second ring, suspecting instantly that something was wrong. She told him of her ordeal and he arranged for the concierge to meet her in the lobby of the hotel and take her to the royal suite, promising her that he and her grandfather would be there soon.  
  
Now Evelynn was alone in the suite, sitting in one of the armless chairs in front of the marble fireplace and staring at the ethanol flames as she rehearsed what she planned to say. Her grandfather had to be behind the burglary. He had to know who she was. He had asked her out to dinner knowing full well she would leave the Swan Miraculous behind so it could be his for the taking.  
  
The door to the suite swung open, her grandfather berating Ben for not letting him know sooner about Evelynn. She padded out to the foyer to meet them. Upon seeing her, her grandfather rushed to her side, knocking into the small table in the middle of the room in the process. Ben dove to stop a glass vase of white calla lilies from tipping over.  
  
“Evelynn, are you okay?” her grandfather was saying. “Thank the Lord you were out when it happened. If anyone were to hurt you—”  
  
“Ben…could you give us a moment?” Evelynn asked, voice strained as she forced herself to keep calm. The man nodded and backed out the way he came, closing the door.  
  
“What is it? What’s wrong?” her grandfather wondered, holding her face. Evelynn removed his hands and returned to the suite’s living room. If she was going to do this, she wanted to at least be comfortable. She sat primly on the plush couch. Her grandfather followed, the wrinkles in his face deepening.  
  
She opened her mouth, but the words refused to come out. _Were you behind the break-in?_ It wasn’t hard. They were ready to roll off her tongue not even a moment ago, but her resolve had faded now that she was face-to-face with her grandfather. She could imagine Ceeree applauding her decision not to accuse him. _You don’t know for sure. Until you have proof, playing along is a great idea!  
  
_“Evelynn…” her grandfather prompted, eyes roving her face, searching for an answer.  
  
Evelynn didn’t know what she was going to do without Ceeree. The Kwami had been with her since the beginning. Without him, she felt helpless. The Devil card—her fear—it had come true.  
  
No, wait. There was still one person who might be able to help her yet.  
  
“I want to come home,” she said.  
  
It was moments like this, when her grandfather beamed at her and then held her tight, that she forgot who he was and what he was trying to do. All she saw was a kindly old gentleman who loved his granddaughter more than the world itself.

*   *   *

 ** _Marta Rodriguez’s House_**  
**_Los Angeles, CA_**  
**_October 15, 2011  
  
_**The strangest part about not having Ceeree by her side anymore was how often Evelynn caught herself talking to him as if he were still there. She never realized how often she spoke to him, even if it was just a passing thought, until he wasn’t complimenting or supporting everything she said. Now she was only talking to herself and it was embarrassing.  
  
“This is…this is bad,” she said, now only to herself, as she sat in the front seat of her new Jetta.  
  
She was parked in front of Marta’s house. It looked as it always had—maybe a few more cracks in the stucco, maybe a few more weeds in the yard—save for one glaring difference. There was a ‘For Sale’ sign zip-tied to the chain-link fence in the front.  
  
Jumping out of her car, Evelynn ran up for a closer look, then slammed a hand against the fence, starling the teenager putting out the trash next door.  
  
“Sorry!” Evelynn told the boy. She got an idea, switching to Spanish. After meeting with Marta the first time, Evelynn felt compelled to learn the language. It opened up a lot more nursing positions for her too. “ _Do you know Marta and Diego Rodríguez?_ ”  
  
He scrunched up his face as he considered her with suspicion. “What about ‘em?” he asked in English.  
  
“They’re moving?”  
  
He gave her a non-committal shrug, which Evelynn supposed she deserved. The sign was right there. With a sigh, she slipped a fifty out of her wallet and offered it to him. He snatched it up and held it to the sun to make sure it was legitimate before pocketing it. It went a long way in loosening his lips.  
  
“Yeah. The old bag’s gonna get moved to a memory care facility. Little D’s already been put in foster care.”  
  
“Foster care!? Doesn’t he have family or something?”  
  
“I guess they all live in Mexico. None of ‘em wanna take him.”  
  
“Oh. That’s…too bad.”  
  
The boy guffawed as he wrestled the trash bin into place. “Whatever you say, _bolillo_.”  
  
_Bolillo_. White bread. Evelynn supposed she deserved that too. She nodded and thanked him, returning to her car. She had to get to Pasadena by 4:00 PM and the traffic on Route 110 was murder, just like all the traffic around LA.  
  
For most of the ride she was able to distract herself with thoughts about what she was going to do about Marta and Diego, especially without her powers, but when she arrived at the corner lot that matched the pictures Howard had sent her, she put her car into park and stared at it. It was a Craftsman ranch painted forest green, with handsome wood trim. The supports out front had stone climbing up them halfway. It was charming in an unexpected way—a bit like its new owner.  
  
She hadn’t seen Howard’s new house in person yet. That was her excuse for going to visit him.  
  
Realizing Howard would catch her awkwardly sitting in her car if she didn’t move, Evelynn jumped out and headed up the front walk before remembering she left the wine in her backseat. It was a 1977 Chateau Brillant Red she had taken from her grandfather’s wine cellar. Goodness knew he had more bottles than he knew what to do with. He honestly couldn’t give them away fast enough and told her she was always free to take one or twelve whenever she wanted.  
  
“Need any help?” Howard called out to her.  
  
She spun around to see him smiling at her from his porch, standing there barefoot in sweatpants and an old UCLA T-shirt.  
  
“I think I can manage,” Evelynn shouted back, holding up the bottle.  
  
“Nice!” He reached for it as she approached, arching an eyebrow as he read the label. “Compliments of your grandpa, I take it.”  
  
“No. I got it using my unemployment.” She leaned into him, pushing him towards the front door. “C’mon, I want to see your house.”  
  
“And here I thought you were here to see me.”  
  
“I’ve seen you before. I haven’t seen your house.”  
  
Howard took her around to all the rooms for the grand tour. There was a living room with built-ins and an old red brick fireplace, a dining room with a pressed tin ceiling, and a kitchen that could use some updating.  There were two bedrooms, but only one bathroom. Howard explained he was looking into adding another off of the master, but needed to get a permit from the city to do so.  
  
Once the tour wrapped up, they returned to the kitchen, where Howard scrounged up two wine glasses and a corkscrew. Evelynn got to work on the cork.  
  
“Actually…” He put one of the glasses back in the cupboard.  
  
“What?” Evelynn wondered.  
  
“I always end up drinking way too much when I’m with you. I think I’ll just have water.”  
  
As he went to go fill a glass from a Britta filter in the fridge, Evelynn closed her eyes and mentally berated herself. Since Howard didn’t remember his time as Dox, he apparently just assumed he was a raging binge drinker.  
  
“So,” he said as they settled down on his leather couch. “You’re done being a traveling nurse.”  
  
“Yup.”  
  
“What did it for you?”  
  
“Oh. You know. A lot of things.” She sloshed her wine around and took a sip. “I basically took it as far as I could go. Travel kind of sucked. It was exciting at first, but it wears on you after a while. Like, just when a place would start to feel like home, I’d have to leave. And…I missed my grandfather.”  
  
“Your grandfather,” Howard repeated.  
  
Evelynn ignored the tinge of disappointment in his voice. “Yeah. He’s getting older. I just thought it was time.”  
  
“So are you going to get a job in Laguna, or…?”  
  
“Maybe. I’ll have to see. It’s all kind of dependent on…” She trailed off, causing Howard to blink rapidly. She avoided looking too deeply into his eyes.  
  
“What?” he wondered.  
  
Evelynn moved a bit closer to him and lowered her voice. “There was a break-in at my apartment back in D.C.” Howard swore. Evelynn nodded as if to confirm. “They took everything.”  
  
“Where were you?”  
  
“That’s the thing. I was out to eat with my grandpa. He was in town for work. He spent most of our dinner trying to convince me to come home. You know I don’t like to do what he wants me to do, so I said no, of course, but after I got to my apartment and saw what happened—I was afraid. I didn’t feel safe. Suddenly my grandpa’s idea didn’t seem so bad anymore. When I told him I was going to take him up on his suggestion, he was so happy, but I got this sinking feeling…He’s got a lot of money. He knew I wouldn’t be home. Whoever stole my stuff knew exactly what to take—”  
  
“Whoa, wait. You think your grandpa had you robbed? To get you to come home?”  
  
“Does it sound crazy?”  
  
“I mean, I’ve never met the guy. I only know what you’ve told me. But…I guess I wouldn’t put it past him.”  
  
“I’m going to go snooping, see if I can figure out if he was behind it or not. Because if he is…I don’t want to be anywhere near him.”  
  
“I see.” They lapsed into companionable silence after that, though it was ladened with double-meaning.  
  
Howard suddenly chugged his water and slammed the empty glass down.  
  
“Please allow me to offer you my services,” he said, a little too loud and a little too fast and a little too formal.  
  
Even though this was exactly what Evelynn expected, she was still surprised. “Hacking?”  
  
“No, my mad video game skills. Does your grandpa play _Call of Duty_?”  
  
“But he uses some insane private network,” she argued, ignoring him. “Unless you access his computer directly, it’s going to be next to impossible to hack him.”  
  
“Couldn’t you get me direct access?”  
  
There was a reason why Evelynn had picked today to visit Howard. “He’s upstate today. I guess in theory if we leave right now—”  
  
Howard jumped up and swept his phone, wallet, and car keys off the mantel and into his hand. “What’s the address?”  
  
It was an hour and fifteen minute drive. That meant one hour and fifteen minutes for Evelynn to be alone with her thoughts while Howard trailed behind her down the San Gabriel River Freeway. One hour and fifteen minutes to feel guilty about her manipulations, her machinations. At least when she was Swan Princess, it was naturally built in to her abilities and there was nothing she could do about it. As Evelynn though, she had a choice. She could’ve not taken advantage of Howard’s feelings for her, even though—she shunted whatever she was going to think of next out of her mind. This was her decision and she was sticking to it. Besides, she had already set everything in motion. It was too late to change her mind now.  
  
Stubborn. Just like her father.  
  
Evelynn rolled down the window as she arrived home, coming to a stop in front of the guard house. Other than Ben, her grandfather’s entire staff had turned over, multiple times, in fact, since her college days. Mary Beth worked weekends during the day now, a quiet woman, former Navy. She liked to communicate with as little talking as possible. She craned her neck out the window, eyeing Howard’s Prius with suspicion.  
  
“Hey, Mary Beth,” greeted Evelynn. She jerked her head in Howard’s direction. “Don’t worry. He’s with me.”  
  
Mary Beth shifted, grabbing a clipboard. “Name?”  
  
“C’mon, really?”  
  
“Mr. Ende is out. I am following protocol, Miss Ende.”  
  
With an annoyed sigh, Evelynn furnished the guard with the information she required. Only then did she push the button to roll back the gates.  
  
Evelynn and Howard parked on the driveway. Evelynn’s grandfather had given her one of the garages to park her car, but it was nicer than most of the apartments she had lived in over the years. She refused to use it on principal alone.  
  
Howard clambered out of his car, trying desperately to hide how impressed he was standing in the shadow of the mansion.  
  
“You…live here?” he wondered.  
  
“Temporarily. I like your house better,” Evelynn told him.  
  
“Yeah…Okay.” Clearly, he did not believe her.  
  
Evelynn led him inside, warning him beforehand about the ridiculous three-story chandelier. It didn’t do much good though, since words didn’t really do it justice. Howard stared at it in slack-jawed awe as Daniella came scurrying up, slightly frantic until she realized it was just Evelynn.  
  
“ _Hola_. Evie.” She smoothed her frizzy hair upon noticing Howard. “And…guest.”  
  
“Howard,” he said, shaking her hand.  
  
“Daniella is one of my grandpa’s housekeepers,” Evelynn explained.  
  
“One of…?”  
  
“ _Ay_ , I’ll call Louis,” said the housekeeper, referring to her grandfather’s current personal chef. Evelynn missed Masahiko. Chef Louis seemed very nice and his food was delicious, but he wasn’t very creative.  
  
“You don’t have to do that,” said Evelynn. “In fact, why don’t you go home for the day?”  
  
Daniella opened her mouth to argue, but her eyes slid over to Howard, who had returned to staring up at the chandelier. A Cheshire Cat grin graced her lips. Evelynn could only imagine what Daniella was going to tell her girlfriends when they met up for sangrias tonight. _Evie brought a man home! Can you imagine?  
  
_“Sounds good, _chicka_ ,” she said, never one to say no to time off. “Let me just wrap a few things up first and then I’ll be out of your hair.”  
  
Evelynn started giving Howard the grand tour, knowing full well that Daniella would take her time. When they finally heard the front door slam, they had gone through half the house. Howard was like a sleepwalker as he took in the seven bedrooms, the library, the parlor, the formal sitting room, the semi-formal sitting room, the casual sitting room, the lounge...  
  
“I mean, I knew you were rich, but—” he started to say as Evelynn showed him the state-of-the-art home theater.  
  
“My grandfather is rich.” How many times in her life had made that correction?  
  
“Right. Right…”  
  
The tour ended abruptly with Daniella’s departure and Evelynn led Howard down the long hallway to her grandfather’s office, having flashbacks to twelve years ago. She felt the same, as if time had tricked her and she was still twenty-one, making vague plans about her future that involved as little of her grandfather’s influence as possible.  
  
If only.  
  
After Evelynn’s break in, her grandfather made some changes to his office. The safe had been moved to the panic room. He had a new computer specially built for him and had it outfitted with the best security money could buy. It didn’t matter though. Dox could get in, and he had left the backdoor open for his civilian self at Swan Princess’s suggestion, just in case.   
  
Howard had with him a messenger bag, filled with what he referred to as the tools of the trade. The names all sounded made-up to Evelynn—USB Rubber Ducky, WiFi Pineapple, LAN Turtle—but they got the job done. He was soon searching through her grandfather’s meticulously-kept files.  
  
“Huh,” he said.  
  
“What?” wondered Evelynn.  
  
“I thought it would be a lot harder, but it almost feels like…like I’ve done this before.” He laughed at himself. “Crazy, huh? I think I would remember!"  
  
Evelynn forced laughter, causing Howard’s eyes to flicker with suspicion. Embarrassed, she excused herself, deciding to start some dinner for the two of them.  
  
  
The refrigerators were always stocked with the most common fruits, vegetables, meat, and dairy products. It was better than going to the grocery store. Whatever Evelynn felt like making, the ingredients were always there. Key Lime Pie? Pecan Crusted Salmon? Guacamole? She pulled out some beef to make hamburgers, but spotted a nice block of cheddar that inspired her to make some Juicy Lucy burgers, a recipe she picked up during her time in Minnesota. Who didn’t like a hamburger stuffed with cheese?  
  
Evelynn didn’t know how long she was cooking when Howard found his way to the kitchen. She was extremely slow at slicing and dicing the fresh produce, so maybe an hour. The Juicy Lucy patties were now sizzling on the grill top on the stove.  
  
“Evie…” he said, touching her shoulder.  
  
Evelynn nearly jumped out of her skin as she spun around, spatula raised high. She calmed down when she realized it was just Howard, but there was something about his serious expression that kept her on edge.  
  
“You scared me,” she muttered, putting the spatula down on a nearby spoon rest. She made it for her grandfather in art class when she was eleven. “So?”  
  
“Your grandfather didn’t rob you.”  
  
Evelynn leaned back against the counter, surprised by how relieved she felt. “Oh, thank goodness.”  
  
“But…um…we need to talk.”  
  
“About what?”  
  
“About—” Howard froze, alarm flooding his eyes as he looked over her shoulder. It took Evelynn a moment to realize why.  
  
She spun around to find herself face-to-face with her grandfather, his brow furrowed as he tried to decipher the stranger in his kitchen with his granddaughter. No doubt Mary Beth had warned him of the mysterious guest, but it didn’t explain why Howard was there. Evelynn’s heart switched to off-kilter palpitations, but her brain seemed to speed up as it formulated a plan. It forced her to throw out her arms and open her mouth before she was even 100% sure about what she was doing.  
  
“Surprise!” she shouted at him. The elderly man blinked at her and she took advantage of his confusion by rushing him with a hug. “Ben let me know you were coming home early. I thought…you wouldn’t suspect a thing.”  
  
She had to keep things light, keep things happy. Her grandfather could not suspect a thing because Howard still needed to delete the security footage of him hacking her grandfather’s home computer. She glanced at the clock on the oven. It was a little passed seven. She had two hours.  
  
Her false brightness continued.  
  
“Grandpa, this is Howie. Howie, Grandpa!”  
  
Howard gave a furtive glance in Evelynn’s direction as he mouthed “ _Howie?_ ”—the only person who had ever called him that was Libby when the two were dating—but he smoothed it over by the time he was shaking her grandfather’s hand. “Howard Jenson. It’s great to finally meet you, sir. Evie speaks so highly of you.”  
  
“I wanted to make us dinner,” Evelynn explained. She went over and cozied up next to Howard, whose eyes almost bugged out of his head. All Evelynn could think though was that at least he had put a blazer on over his T-shirt before he left his house so he looked somewhat presentable. She patted him on the chest. “And introduce you to my boyfriend, of course.”  
  
The words were magic, even if Howard flinched a little. Her grandfather’s wariness dissipated and was replaced with a warm smile. “Boyfriend!? Why, that’s wonderful! Jenson, you say? You wouldn’t happen to be related to Benedict Jenson, would you? The shipping magnate?”  
  
“Uh, yeah, actually. That’s my grandpa’s cousin, I think. Or something like that.”  
  
Evelynn slipped away to flip the burgers. Good thing she decided to make three, just in case Howard wanted a second one.  
  
Dinner, as well as their ruse, went better than expected. The background was there. They went to college together. He had dated Libby. Evelynn had sent Howard a postcard from every town she worked in and he claimed he had saved every one. They pretended they had started dating long distance when Evelynn was in D.C., and he factored into her decision to return home. Her grandfather was a bit put out upon discovering this, but understanding, especially as he got to know Howard better. He was suitably impressed that Howard had started his own business and that said business was rapidly expanding. Evelynn’s grandfather knew little about the world of hacking and asked a lot of questions. Evelynn had to stomp on Howard’s foot pretty hard to get him to stop talking about it. The less her grandfather knew, the better.  
  
A little after 8:30, Evelynn jumped up and explained Howard had to leave. He had work the next morning and Pasadena was a bit of a trek, but Howard seemed to be enjoying himself. When Evelynn’s grandfather suggested he stay for a cup of after-dinner coffee, he gladly accepted. Evelynn tried to drop hints that he still had a project he needed to finish, but he claimed he didn’t know what she was talking about and resumed listening to her grandfather tell tales about business deals and exotic vacations. As soon as the coffee in their cups became a brown ring at the bottom, Evelynn took them away and again insisted that Howard leave. Her grandfather offered to walk them out, but Evelynn was quick to shut him down and hurry Howard away.  
  
“In here,” she said, dragging him into the security closet.  
  
“Evie, what are you—?” He stopped short, staring at the computer screens showcasing different areas inside and outside the house, including the office. Realization dawned on him. “Oh.”  
  
Evelynn showed him the clock on her phone. “The night guard comes in to check them at nine,” she said.  
  
Howard swore. “Why didn’t you tell me?” he asked, grabbing a seat.  
  
“I tried!”  
  
“I know, but—ugh!”  
  
He got to work, keys clacking.  
  
“That was…uh…some quick thinking back there,” he said as he worked.  
  
“We can talk about it later,” Evelynn insisted, killing the conversation where it stood, but the air remained thick with tension. She tried to shrink into the back wall. She could just tell she was distracting him. He was hitting the backspace a lot more than normal as his hands flew over the keys.  
  
Panic rising, Evelynn brought up her anti-anxiety app, but closed it from time-to-time to look at the clock. The two canceled each other out, so her panic continued to bubble in the pit of her stomach.  
  
“It’s nine,” she announced after a while.  
  
“I’m still not done.”  
  
“I’m just saying.”  
  
“I’m going as fast as I—”  
  
“Okay! I get it. Keep going!”  
  
With bated breath, Evelynn put her ear against the door as she stared at her phone. 9:01. 9:02. 9:03. Finally, at 9:04, she heard the front door creak open and the jangle of keys.  
  
“He’s coming!” she hissed. She hadn’t caught the weekend night guard’s name yet, but he was a gangly man in his mid-fifties who hunched as if afraid of his own towering height.  
  
Howard’s hands were like a blur, they moved so fast. “And…” He struck one last key just as the doorknob began to twist beneath Evelynn’s hand. “Done.”  
  
Maybe it was because she watched too many Hallmark movies, or maybe it was because the fake dating had worked so well on her grandfather, but Evelynn mused her hair and then all but threw herself at Howard as he spun his chair around and tried to get up. Slamming him back down, she straddled him and forced her mouth on his. She expected resistance from him, but found none. Whatever. They had to sell it.  
  
The door swung open. “Oh! Uh…” The door swung mostly closed. “I-I wasn’t expecting—”  
  
Evelynn jumped to her feet and opened the door for the guard, cheeks flushed. “God. How embarrassing! Uh…you have to check the feeds? We’ll get out of your way.”  
  
She couldn’t look at Howard as she reached back. He fit his hand into hers and she dragged him out. The guard took a step back to allow them to pass, averting his eyes as he doffed his cap and scratched the top of his head. Evelynn was pretty confident he would never speak a word of this to her grandfather.  
  
Evelynn pulled Howard out onto the front stoop and slammed the door shut behind them, thankful for a successful escape. The cool night air did wonders for her panic and the heat flowing through her veins.  
  
“Let’s…let’s walk,” suggested Howard, his fingers still entwined with hers. Though Evelynn did not want to, she felt herself getting tugged along. She hurried to match his strides. When they reached the door gate, Evelynn opened it using her thumbprint. Soon they were out on the walled street, trees leaning out of their compounds to provide a canopy.  
  
Evelynn didn’t speak as she focused on the sky and the sound of waves nearby. Her palm was so sweaty that she could’ve easily slipped out of Howard’s grasp, but she left her hand where it was.  
  
“Does the name Dox mean anything to you?” Howard asked.  
  
Evelynn turned to him, mouth parted in shock. “Doxxing?” she asked. She wasn’t playing dumb. She was just caught off-guard. It didn’t seem possible that Howard wanted to talk about Dox after she pretended they were together and made out with him. “Isn’t that like—?”  
  
“Or Crazy Eight? Or Madame Midnight? Or Automo-Bill? What about President Patriot and Amazonia?”  
  
“Wait. Those…superheroes?”  
  
He shook his head, disappointed. “Don’t do this, Evie. I know what I saw on your grandpa’s computer. Omega Labs, those weird creatures, those cufflinks you wear. They give the wearer the ability to give people superpowers.”  
  
“You’re crazy.”  
  
“I’ve been trying to track them, the superheroes. I can’t believe I never made the connection.”  
  
“What are you talking about?”  
  
“They always appear where you are.”  
  
“That’s not—”  
  
“Even before then, I’ve been trying to figure out who Dox is. There’s been whispers of him in the hacking community for years. He does what I only wish I could do. But he’s a ghost. And he only ever seems to operate during times I can’t remember—blackouts, like I’m drunk, but I don’t have a hangover the next morning.”  
  
“Sounds nice,” offered Evelynn, even though she knew it was a dumb thing to say.  
  
“Evie…” He spun her to face him. “Is there…is there something you want to tell me?”  
  
Evelynn felt numb. She stared passed Howard, to some imaginary point beyond his head. There were so many times when she was tempted to tell him that she was using him. Dox told her that wasn’t the case, but she refused to believe him. Of course he would say that. It was what she wanted to hear. Sometimes, he was even worse than Ceeree.  
  
Her breathing hitched. Oh. Oh, Ceeree…  
  
“My cufflinks got stolen,” she mumbled, lost. She was lost. “Can you find them?”  
  
She might as well have stabbed Howard, the look he gave her, but he nodded and swallowed, his pronounced Adam’s apple bobbing. He let go of her hand and headed back the way they had come. She trailed after him, a shadow. When they reached the gate, he tried to open it, but of course it didn’t budge. Rather than stepping out of the way, he continued to pull, rattling the whole gate.  
  
“I got it! I got it!” said the guard, who had just entered the guard house. He nearly tripped over his own comically large feet to buzz them in. He tipped his hat. “You folks have a good night.”  
  
Howard crossed the driveway to his car. As he grabbed the handle though, he paused. Evelynn stopped in her tracks, sensing some sort of change within him. It was the most remarkable thing. He turned to Evelynn…and smiled. It was a frank smile, a knowing one that made his eyes glimmering in the light of the outdoor sconces.  
  
“I had a really good time tonight.”  
  
Evelynn was startled, like a squirrel meeting a speeding car for the first time. She looked around, suspecting her grandfather was watching and Howard was putting on a show. “You…?”  
  
He hesitated before taking his chances and kissing her on the cheek. “I’ll let you know if I find them. I know how important they are to you.”  
  
Then he got into his car and drove away.  
  
Evelynn returned to the house floating on the strangest feeling. It wasn’t love, or Cloud Nine, or anything like that. It was something akin to comfort, like coming in from a blizzard to find a crackling fire, a soft blanket, and a steaming mug of hot cocoa waiting for you. Reassurance, maybe. Warmth. She wasn’t alone. Despite Howard knowing…something, he was still willing to help her. She decided to accept it for now. After all, it was all she had.  
  
“My dear…”  
  
Evelynn was walking through the formal living room when her grandfather spoke up. She looked to find him in his favorite armchair, lowering his iPad and holding his liver-spotted hand out to her. A jolt shot through her, even all these years later, even with all the lights on. She moved towards him to grab his hand so she wouldn’t be standing where Swan Princess had been when her grandfather confronted her.  
  
“Howard seems perfect for you. I’m so glad you finally found someone,” he said, patting her knuckles. “All I’ve ever wanted was for you to be happy.”  
  
“And if he lives in the area, all the better, right?”  
  
He laughed. “It doesn’t hurt.” He squeezed her hand and kissed the back of it. “It’s good to have you under my roof again.”  
  
“You do realize I’m not staying, right? As soon as I find a full-time job…” Now that Evelynn thought about it, there was something important she needed to ask her grandfather. She took a seat on the tufted ottoman. “Actually, I’ve been meaning to speak to you about that. Remember back in D.C., when you offered to help me get a job?”  
  
The old man blinked. “But you said—”  
  
“I know what I said, but now that I’m here, I realized it would make my transition a whole lot easier.”  
  
The corners of his eyes crinkled. “What were you thinking?”  
  
“You don’t already know?” joked Evelynn. “I was thinking maybe a memory care facility, maybe in the city, if not as a nurse, then as a caregiver, just for the time being. I’ve always enjoyed working with the elderly. They’ve always held a special place in my heart.”  
  
“Evelynn! Are you calling me old?”  
  
“I don’t know. How old do you feel, Grandpa?”  
  
“Not a day over fifty. But I understand where you’re coming from and you’re in luck. I know just the place.”  
  
Evelynn did too. Marta was currently her best chance at redemption since she had failed everyone else—the Kwami, Ceeree, Manny, Isa. Some Guardian she was. She made a promise on Manny’s grave that she would take care of his family but had spent her time chasing after things that didn’t want to be found.  
  
Maybe losing Ceeree was karma. And maybe taking care of Marta would make things right again. And if she were able to intercept the Dog Miraculous, then all the better.

*   *   *

 ** _Howard Jenson’s House_**  
**_Pasadena, CA_**  
**_October 22, 2011  
  
_**“So…” started Evelynn as she and Howard sat on the leather couch in his living room. He was the one who had invited her over, so he should’ve been the one to break the awkward silence that settled in after she arrived, but it had been a solid minute that felt like ten with neither of them speaking.  
  
“How have you been?” he asked when Evelynn couldn’t come up with anything further to say.  
  
“You…you already asked me that,” she pointed out.  
  
He shut his green eye. “Right…you said you were good. That’s…good.”  
  
More silence. Evelynn searched the ceiling for something, anything to talk about. Inspiration struck as she looked back on her week. “Oh! I had a job interview yesterday.”  
  
“Really!? That’s great! Where at?”  
  
“Belmont Village Senior Living of Westwood.”  
  
“That’s a mouthful. How’d it go?”  
  
“It doesn’t matter. I bet it was just a formality.”  
  
“What makes you say that?”  
  
“My grandpa set it up.”  
  
“Oh…”  
  
“Besides, it’s just for a caregiver position since they don’t have any openings in nursing. I’m overqualified.”  
  
“Got it.”  
  
They lapsed into silence again, one that threatened to force Evelynn out of the house to escape its oppression. Luckily, she identified what was behind it.  
  
“What don’t you want to tell me?” she asked.  
  
With a beleaguered sigh, Howard grabbed his laptop and opened it for her to see. He pulled up a screenshot of some sort of online marketplace akin to eBay, picture tiles of products stacked up on top of each other. In the corner were the words ‘Silk Road’ and a logo depicting an Arab man riding a camel in green. It had such categories as ‘Drugs,’ ‘Forgeries,’ and ‘Lab Supplies.’ Evelynn wondered if it was some kind of joke, but Howard was deadly serious as he spoke.  
  
“This is the darknet market where I found your cufflinks,” he explained, pointing them out. Nestled between ‘(pack steroid price full escrow’ and ‘Credit card info fullz + mmn + dob + VBV password’ was a picture of her cufflinks. They were labeled, ‘Freaky Weird Van Cleef & Arpels 24k Gold Cuff Links.’  
  
“You found them!?” she cried, but Howard was quick to dampen her enthusiasm.  
  
“ _After_ they had already been sold.”  
  
“Who bought them?”  
  
“That’s where it gets tricky. Sites like these have anonymised access and it was paid for with bitcoin using an escrow service.”  
  
“That…cryptocurrency you were telling me about? I still don’t get it.”  
  
“We all have our strengths and weaknesses, Evie,” Howard said with a sly grin. She shoved him playfully.  
  
“So were you able to figure out who bought them or not?” she wondered.  
  
Here he grimaced and nodded. “Does the name Rodney Cadel mean anything to you…?”  
  
Evelynn fell back into the comfort of the couch. She wasn’t surprised. In fact, she had been preparing for the worst, but to hear that name after all these years…her throat tightened. “Yes,” she managed. “He works for my grandfather.”  
  
“So…your grandpa’s got them. That’s not…good. What our play?”  
  
But Evelynn was pulling out her phone and accessing her Guardian emails. Her only chance at recovering the Swan Miraculous now was with another Miraculous. It was time to bring Dr. Blaylock back home. Even if she had never found a Chosen One, she had done a better job than Evelynn at protecting her Miraculous for all these years.  
  
“Evie?” prompted Howard, but she waved him off.  
  
_Dear Dr. Blaylock,  
  
__I regret to inform you that the worst has occurred. The Swan Miraculous has been stolen from Swan Princess by the Founder of Omega Labs. I request that you return to Los Angeles immediately to meet with her. She requires the use of the Rabbit Miraculous if she is to recover it, and we could use your help as well in the search. Please let me know when you arrive and I will set up a time and place for the two of you to meet.  
  
__Thank you for your consideration.  
  
_She hit send.  
  
“I have to go,” she decided. She didn’t have any place to be, but there was nothing more she could do at Howard’s, so it seemed like a waste of her time to stay there. She threw on her trench coat.  
  
“What!? But—” Howard stood quickly. “You just got here.”  
  
Evelynn spun around and walked backwards towards the front door as she spoke. “I know. And I’m sorry. But thank you for your help. I’ll see you around, okay?”  
  
But Howard vaulted over the couch and darted in front of her, nearly slamming himself into the door as he blocked her way. “Evie, talk to me. Please. Tell me what’s going on.”  
  
“I’m not getting you more involved in this than you already are.”  
  
“But I am involved. I’ve been involved.”  
  
“Please move.”  
  
“I will.” He paused, chest heaving a little after his sudden sprint. “…If you answer one question.”  
  
Evelynn took a step back, jaw tightening. She didn’t like where this was going, but the sooner she could leave, the better. “All right,” she consented. “One question.”  
  
“Have you been using me this whole time?”  
  
Howard seemed so small when he said it, which was strange. After years of feeling like he wasn’t respected, he began to find ways to command it. Standing tall, bulking up a little, speaking in a slightly deeper tone. All that was stripped away though as he hunched a little to be closer to her level. His eyes were clouded with fear and hope and loathing—a heartbreaking kaleidoscope Evelynn couldn’t stand to see.  
  
She thought about lying to him, but couldn’t bring herself to do it. She owed Howard a lot.  
  
That included the truth.  
  
“Yes.”  
  
There was a large thump and Evelynn flinched. Howard had smacked his fist against the door.  
  
“That makes sense,” he said softly. “You never did like me much anyway.”  
  
“T-that’s not…”  
  
He found the knob and opened the door for her.  
  
Evelynn stared out into the street. The Santa Ana winds battered the palm trees above her car. A man on a bright yellow recumbent bike passed by. There was a sputter and then a roar of a lawn mower as someone started mowing their lawn down the street. If she left, it would hurt Howard. If she stayed and explained herself, it would hurt Howard. But if she stayed exactly where she was—if she didn’t move, if time stopped—nothing bad would happen.  
  
But then he looked at her with those stupid heterochromic eyes of his and she broke.  
  
“I like you,” she blurted out, causing Howard’s eyebrows to shoot up. She admonished herself for how middle school that sounded and tried again. “I mean, I have feelings for you, but they’re not real. They can’t be real.”  
  
“What’re you—?”  
  
“It’s complicated, okay? I mean, how do I even explain this? So when I wear my cufflinks, I don’t just give people superpowers. I control them. In a way.”  
  
“Okay…”  
  
“I’ve controlled you.”  
  
Howard shut the door.  
  
“So I was right,” he said. “I am Dox.”  
  
“Yeah.”  
  
Howard let this information wash over him for a moment. “That’s…um…okay. Okay. So you turned me into a superhero and…what did you make me do?”  
  
“It’s, uh, hard to say. I only took direct control of you once, to get us out of trouble.” The lines of worry on Howard’s face began to ease. If only Evelynn could let them. “But…there is a passive part of my powers that turns those I transform into my devoted followers, so…You always did whatever I wanted you to do. Spy on my grandpa, gather information, transfer money discreetly…uh, comfort me…” She colored a little. “Strictly platonic, of course. I would never... I could never—But I let you do what you wanted too and—”  
  
“And this has been happening for, what? _Years?_ ”  
  
“Since Senior year of college, yeah.”  
  
Howard swore under his breath. “That time I passed out at your place at the end of Spring Break?”  
  
He searched her face, but she didn’t know exactly what he was looking for. She nodded, watching his countenance cloud over.  
  
“I always wondered why you changed your mind about me,” he said.  
  
“Howard—”  
  
She should’ve just left.  
  
“Christ, Evie,” he hissed, storming away. He headed into the kitchen and came back with a thick stack of postcards. He undid the rubber band and threw them at the credenza next to the front door. They fanned out, some of them falling to the floor—Chicago, New Orleans, Rochester, Detroit, Washington D.C. and many more. It took Evelynn longer than it should have to recognize them and the neat, square handwriting on the backs.  
  
“You actually kept them?” she realized, voice wavering.  
  
“Did you think I was lying when I told your grandpa that? Of course I kept them. Because I thought they meant something.”  
  
“They…they do.” Tears welled up in Evelynn’s eyes. She knew how she looked. Like a girl who cried wolf.  
  
“How can they when you were using me from the start?” Howard wondered.  
  
“I needed your help! I didn’t know what else to do. If my grandpa gets his hands on all seven Kwami—”  
  
“You could’ve just asked.”  
  
“I didn’t want you to get involved.”  
  
“This again? _You_ involved _me_! And I apparently I didn’t even have a choice!”  
  
“Then have one now!” she cried. “I can’t turn you into Dox anymore and now you know the truth. You’re free and…I’m sorry. I wasn’t given a choice either—I’m the Guardian of those Kwami whether I want to be or not and it was just…nice to have a partner. I wasn’t alone. You were there for me when no one else was. And I know that…that I made you, that I made Dox, but you have no idea how much that meant to me.”  
  
Howard was silent, his gaze cutting. Evelynn swallowed and pulled out her wallet. She plucked out a few hundred dollar bills out and laid them on top of the postcards.  
  
“For your services,” she told him, voice thick. She cleared her throat. “Bill me the rest. I’ll make sure you’re well compensated for…for everything.”  
  
And then she left.  
  
Evelynn managed to keep her tears at bay down Howard’s front walk, but once she was in the safety of her own car, everything inside her broke loose. So that was it, then.  
  
_Ztt ztt. Ztt ztt.  
  
_Evelynn wiped her cheek, recognizing the sound her phone made when it received a new email. At first she thought it was too early for Belmont to be getting back to her about the job, but then she recalled the message she had sent to Dr. Blaylock. Hands shaking, she tore through her purse and grabbed her phone to have a look. Sure enough, the scientist had responded to her request, even though it was 5:00 AM in South Korea.  
  
_Guardian,  
  
__My apologies, but I must speak my mind on this matter. I refuse to hand the Rabbit Miraculous over to someone so careless. Swan Princess has clearly been compromised and can no longer be trusted to keep a Miraculous safe.  
  
I know you will disagree, so I am taking precautions to keep the Rabbit Miraculous safe, even from you. That includes disabling this email account. However, I will do what I can to find and recover the Swan Miraculous on my own, and will be in touch if anything changes.  
  
__Best,  
  
A. Blaylock, Ph.D  
  
_Evelynn slowly put the phone down and laid her head against the cool steering wheel, careful not to put too much pressure on it and set off the horn. It seemed no matter what she did, she just couldn’t win.  
  
_The only way to win is to stop trying to win.  
  
_Evelynn picked her head up. Who had said those words to her? Oh, right. Mrs. White. The Hanged Man. She remembered now. D.C. felt like ages ago by this point. But maybe she would give her advice a try—she had nothing else left to lose at this point.

*   *   *

 _ **Belmont Village Senior Living of Westwood**_  
_**Los Angeles, CA**_  
_**November 12, 2011**_  
  
Evelynn was a little shocked by how easy it was to wave money around and get what she wanted. All the chances in her life she could’ve done so, she refused, only to use it now to ensure that she would be assigned who she wanted at a retirement home despite her grandfather’s machinations. Life was funny like that.  
  
Evelynn watched as Susan, the Director of their facility, greeted Marta, Diego, and Marta’s court appointed guardian at the door. Evelynn had relied on the Swan Miraculous for so long that she no longer knew how to read people the normal way, but it didn’t take her long to realize Susan had a mind for business, not for compassionate care. The only reason she was talking to Marta right now was because she thought the woman was wealthy.  
  
Marta looked like a shade of her former self. Keeping her illness at bay for all these years for Diego’s sake had taken its toll on her, washing out her features, making her frail. She looked simply exhausted, especially standing next to her grandson. Diego, now twelve, had sprung up in the last year and towered over her. His eyes were bright and alert as his gaze roved the lobby. He was probably wondering how his dad’s ‘military stipend’ paid for all this.  
  
“There is someone very important I’d like to introduce you to,” Susan was saying as she led the group over to Evelynn. Diego supported his grandma’s arm as she tottered along, gently leading her as the guardian translated Susan’s words. “This is Evelynn Ende. She will be your caregiver during your stay with us, Ms. Rodriguez.”  
  
“ _Please call me Evie._ _It’s so nice to meet you!_ ” said Evelynn in Spanish, shoving her hand in Marta’s and shaking it. She was speaking fast, like she always did when she wanted people to like her. She was more like Ceeree than she previously thought. “ _Do you prefer Marta or Ms. Rodriguez? Because I don’t mind calling you either._ ”  
  
The woman’s eyes flickered. “ _Do I know you?_ ” she asked, peering up at Evelynn as if trying to place her face.  
  
Evelynn drew back. No. It was impossible…  
  
“ _No, Grammie_ ,” said Diego quickly. “ _This is Evie. You’re meeting her for the first time._ ”  
  
“ _Oh. I see._ ”  
  
“She does that to everyone now,” Diego told Evie in English.  
  
“This is her grandson, Diego,” Susan explained to Evie before turning back to addressing Marta. “Evie is actually a certified nurse as well as a caregiver and, as you can see, fluent in Spanish. So we thought she’d be a perfect fit.”  
  
_No, you didn’t_ , thought Evelynn, barely refraining from rolling her eyes.  
  
They headed down to Marta’s suite. Some men had come the week before to set it all up, installing all new everything and decking the place out with some of Marta’s personal belongings—pictures, paintings, blankets, a hand-carved chair from Mexico. It had a nice, homey feel to it. Marta even gasped when she saw it and suddenly became a fountain of speech, dragging her grandson around as she showed him everything as if she had decorated the space herself, as if he didn’t grow up in a house filled with them.  
  
While Susan went to get the paperwork and the guardian turned her attention to her phone, Evelynn grabbed a gift she had placed on a side table by the door.  
  
“ _I hope you’ll be at home here, Marta_ ,” Evelynn said. “ _So I brought you a housewarming gift. Just a little something to say, ‘welcome!’”  
  
_Marta accepted it, but didn’t seem to know what to do with the gift. Diego gently led her to a table so she could unwrap it. Inside were some Mexican coffee beans, the same kind Marta had in her kitchen when Swan Princess came to visit. The woman’s eyes began to well up.  
  
“ _Do you like it?_ ” wondered Evelynn. “ _It’s okay if you don’t, I just thought that you might. I’ll give it to the cooks and they can brew it for you every morning. Or some mornings. Whatever mornings you want._ ”  
  
“ _It’s perfect_ ,” said Marta.  
  
Evelynn proceeded to give them a tour of the suite, trying to get to know them as if she had never met them before in her life. At one point, Marta called Diego ‘Manuel.’ He looked as pained as Evelynn felt hearing that name, but he didn’t correct her.  
  
“ _And your next-door-neighbor is a lovely woman named Lillian_ ,” Evelynn explained after going around the suite. “ _She was a nurse during World War II and the Korean War on a navy medical ship!_ ”  
  
“ _My son_ ,” said Marta suddenly. “ _He was in the army_.”  
  
Evelynn glanced at Diego and the boy gave an almost imperceptible nod. “ _Manuel?_ ” she guessed.  
  
“ _Yes, yes. He died for this country._ ”  
  
“ _Then I am very grateful to him. I bet he saved a lot of people’s lives._ ”  
  
Marta smiled at her, shedding a few years off her face.  
  
Susan returned for Marta and her guardian. They needed her signature on a few things. Evelynn was left alone with Diego. The boy stared out the window, which overlooked the courtyard. There couldn’t be a fountain for the safety of the residents, but there were trees and benches and flowers.  
  
It was strange. Evelynn had basically watched Diego grow up, but it was through school pictures and documents Dox had shown her. It was almost like she was distant friends with him on social media, seeing his updates but never commenting, never interacting. Now that she thought about it, she didn’t know him at all.  
  
“It’s nice of you to be here to support your grandma,” Evelynn said tentatively.  
  
“It’s not like I have a choice.” Diego poked the glass, refusing to turn around. “She’s the only family I got left.”  
  
“Oh…I see. So both your parents are…?”  
  
“Yeah.”  
  
“Mine too.”  
  
Diego turned around, distrust in his eyes.  
  
“I was ten,” she said. “It sucked.”  
  
“At least you got that much.” Back to the window. “I barely remember mine. Just my _abuela_. And now… she barely remembers me.”  
  
The awkward silence that followed was excruciating. It came as a relief when the guardian returned with Marta. Susan had other things to attend to, apparently. The guardian, having signed over her guardianship to Belmont, wished Marta luck and left, twelve new cases on her docket. Evelynn felt for the woman. Being a guardian, no matter what you were the guardian of, was a difficult job.  
  
“ _I heard you guys like to play Conquian_ ,” Evelynn said to Marta and Diego, pulling out a deck. “ _I’ve only ever played Rummy, so maybe you can teach me?_ ”  
  
Cards was how they passed the rest of their time together, until a man in his mid-twenties with a mop of greasy, curly hair appeared in the doorway. He stood there, tugging at his ill-fitting pleated pants, unsure of whether to knock on the open door or wait to be noticed. He eventually elected to knock after everyone was already staring at him.  
  
“Uhhhhhhhh Diego, it’s, uh, time to go.”  
  
Diego gave the man a dead-eyed stare before going back to his hand. Evelynn grimaced as she jumped up from her chair.  
  
“You must be Diego’s caseworker,” she said, shaking his dead fish hand. “I’m Evie, Marta’s new caregiver.”  
  
“Brad. Bradley.”  
  
“Brad…Bradley?”  
  
“No, um. Just…Bradley.”  
  
“Like Cher? Or Madonna?”  
  
“No!” he almost yelled. Evelynn gave him an alarmed but encouraging smile and he calmed down a little. “Bradley Bowers.”  
  
Evelynn heard Marta speak to Diego behind her.  
  
“ _It’s time to go_ ,” she said.  
  
“ _No, Grammie. I’m not leaving you_ ,” the boy insisted.  
  
“ _I’ll be fine. You see this place? I’ll live like a queen_. _And Evie seems nice. I like her._ ”  
  
“ _Aw! Thanks, Marta,_ ” said Evelynn over her shoulder. “ _I like you too!_ ”  
  
Marta clutched her chest as she nearly hyperventilated. “ _You speak Spanish!?_ ”  
  
It could’ve almost been a joke, but everyone knew better. With a heavy sigh, Diego threw his cards on the table and got up. He kissed his grandma and she patted his cheek, a blissful smile folding her face.  
  
“ _You be good now,_ ” she told him.  
  
Evelynn watched as Diego slung his bright red backpack over one of his shoulders, dragging his feet as he crossed the room. Bradley tried to put a comforting hand on Diego’s shoulder as he passed, but the boy shrugged him off.  
  
“It was, uh, nice meeting you Eden,” Bradley said, scratching the back of her neck.  
  
“Evie,” she corrected. “Don’t worry,” she added quickly, sensing his rising panic. “Happens all the time.”  
  
That was a lie, but Bradley believed it. He mustered a lopsided grin and trailed Diego down the hall. Evelynn leaned out of Marta’s room to watch them go for a moment. Without her powers, there seemed so little she could do to help Diego. She could only pray the foster system would work out in his favor.  
  
A sniffle attracted Evelynn’s attention. Marta was hunched over her cards, body shaking. Evelynn grabbed a box of Kleenex and went to kneel next to her.  
  
“ _I know. I know it’s hard,_ ” she said, offering up the tissues, but Marta ignored them.  
  
“ _Do you have children?_ ” Marta demanded. Evelynn drew back, recalling the time Dr. Blaylock had asked her the same question. What was up with grandmothers asking her that?  
  
“ _No_ ,” she said. She no longer had the excuse that she was too young, not that she cared. She just knew exactly where this conversation was going.  
  
“ _Then you don’t know how hard it is. You can never know. A loving parent would do anything to protect their child, and their child’s child, so when they aren’t able to do so—when things are beyond their control—it destroys them a bit. Makes them crazy._ ”  
  
Evelynn turned Marta’s words over in her head and nodded. She could understand that, because the same thing had happened to her own grandfather, she was sure of it.  
  
The rest of the day went smoothly, with Evelynn introducing Marta to different activities with the intention of keeping her mind sharp and occupied, but she would lose her almost constantly. She kept on asking for her grandson, sometimes even her son or her husband, and Evelynn’s heart would break. She refused to let it weaken her resolve though. She would provide this woman with the best care possible, for however long she could. She was relieved when it was time to go home though. It had been a trying day.  
  
Walking out into the now empty lobby, Evelynn was only thinking of an In-N-Out burger followed by catching up on _Grey's Anatomy_ before going to bed. She was not expecting someone to call her name.  
  
“Evie!”  
  
Evelynn turned, recognizing the voice but thinking she was mistaken, even as Howard jogged up to her. She hadn’t seen him since she left his house two weeks ago. He looked haggard, with the beginnings of a patchy beard.  
  
“Howard!” she squeaked. She also hadn’t been answering his calls, so she couldn’t blame him for ambushing her at work. She knew she promised to pay him for his services, she just didn’t want to boil down their relationship to a business transaction—not when she still had feelings for him, genuine or not.  
  
She looked at his hands, fully expecting to see a folder or paperwork, but they were empty.  
  
“I didn’t mean to surprise you,” he said, clasping his hands and then unclasping them. “Can…can we sit? Can we talk?”  
  
Evelynn bit her lip, her eyes glancing over to Gladys the receptionist. The woman had nodded off, two steps away from being a resident of Belmont herself. It seemed in the lobby of a senior living center was as good of a place as any to do this.  
  
“Okay,” she said, leading the way to the cozy corner where the piano was. They sat opposite of each other.  
  
“I thought about what you said,” Howard started.  
  
“I said a lot of things.”  
  
“I know, but the stuff about choice. And, no matter what way I spin it—I would’ve always said yes to becoming Dox. Every single time. All the stuff he—I—did, I helped so many people. I helped you. You said you were using me…but I don’t think you were.”  
  
“Howard…”  
  
“Stop. I wanted to help. Okay?”  
  
But Evelynn turned away. She was hearing what she wanted to hear, just like always. “You sound just like Dox.”  
  
“Maybe because I am Dox?”  
  
“Not anymore.”  
  
Howard shifted uncomfortably in his seat. “I get it. You’re worried. But I’m asking you to trust me. I know myself and I know you. And the fact that you _are_ worried…don’t you think that says something about you?”  
  
“What?”  
  
Howard reached over and gently took up her wrists, pressing his thumbs to where she used to wear her cufflinks. Evelynn stared down numbly, not really feeling his touch. It just didn’t make sense to her that his hands would be there after everything that had happened.  
  
“You are a good person. I would follow you anywhere. So I’m asking you to let me. Please.”  
  
It was tempting. Evelynn even allowed herself to imagine it. Her and Howard, the Guardian and her loyal knight. Maybe they’d be able to steal back the Swan Miraculous. Maybe they could track down the Mantis Miraculous holder together. Maybe they would be able to find Zaasa or Hokss or Lummen. Either way, Evelynn wouldn’t be alone. She would have someone to share her burden with and being the Guardian didn’t seem so dark and heavy.  
  
It was too good to be true.  
  
“…No,” she said.  
  
Howard tried to cover up a frustrated sigh as he pulled back. “Can I ask you something?” he asked, clearly not giving up. “What made you change your mind about me? You hated me.”  
  
“I didn’t—! Well, okay. I did. But I realized I misjudged you when I sensed your intentions using my cufflinks.”  
  
“You can do that?”  
  
“It’s how I know people will make good superheroes. And you were a good superhero. One of the best, in fact. That’s one of the reasons why I kept on transforming you.”  
  
“What were the others?”  
  
“Huh? Oh. Um. Well, you also asked me to. The first time I transformed you and you found out you were going to forget everything when I changed you back, you asked me to consider using you again so you could remember.”  
  
“That makes sense. Who wouldn’t want to remember being a superhero?”  
  
“Actually…” Evelynn chanced a look at Howard’s eyes. He was looking off to the right, a wry smile on his face as he thought of his superhero self doing amazing things. “You wanted to remember your time with…with, uh…me.”  
  
There was a sharp intake of breath on his part and he turned to face her. He looked so hopeful. “I said that?”  
  
“Yeah.”  
  
“And you do realize that’s still true, right?”  
  
“You want to—?”  
  
He grinned. “Why don’t you come over for dinner Friday, fill me in? I’ll cook.”  
  
Evelynn blinked. Howard was asking her out on a date. Somehow. He was attempting to convince her that they could work. Somehow. It was a very Dox thing to do. No, wait. It was a very Howard thing to do. She had kept them separated in her mind for so long that she had begun to see them as two different people, rather than one as an extension of the other.  
  
“Smooth, Howie,” she snarked to lighten things up a bit. “All right, I see you’re not going to give up.”  
  
“Guess I’m as stubborn as you are,” he said. “Does eight work?”

*   *   *

 **_Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center_ **  
**_Los Angeles, CA_**  
**_September 7, 2012  
  
_**The university was in the middle of constructing the Reagan when Evelynn went to UCLA. Her and her classmates had to be content with a sagging, aging teaching hospital that was structurally damaged by the ‘94 Northridge earthquake while a fancy travertine marble replacement went up across the street. The old center still stood, an 11-story brick maze of intersecting wings and secret courtyards, but it was mostly empty now, ready to be torn down or renovated into office space. The Reagan was the future, built to withstand an 8.0 magnitude earthquake and one of the top twenty hospitals in 15 of the 16 medical specialties ranked by _US News_.  
  
Including pancreatic cancer.  
  
Dr. Blaylock’s email was as dry as a scientific research paper. She only said her cancer was terminal and that she wanted to meet. She had one last candidate she’d like to present as the Chosen One for the Rabbit Miraculous. Evelynn didn’t hold out much hope. She was mostly going just to say goodbye.  
  
The first thing Evelynn noticed when she entered Dr. Blaylock’s room was what she didn’t see. There were no flowers, no balloons, no cards full of well wishes, and she suspected she was responsible. Though Dr. Blaylock never said, Evelynn assumed her children had cut her out of their lives again, seeing her globetrotting as a return to her old workaholic ways. Still, to not visit their own mother as she died seemed rather harsh.  
  
Dr. Blaylock was laid up in bed, a yellowing shrunken husk of her former self who still made an effort to look polished, even in a hospital gown. She was half-asleep, the TV turned to the Discovery Channel. It burbled quietly in the background as Evelynn took a seat.  
  
“Hi, Dr. Blaylock,” she said. The woman’s eyes flickered open. She said nothing, but managed to raise an eyebrow. “The Guardian sent me.”  
  
“You.”  
  
Evelynn swallowed and nodded. She had dressed for the occasion—smart pant suit, lavender blouse, hair done up in a braided crown. “We’ve met before…when I was Swan Princess.”  
  
“I see…” Dr. Blaylock dragged her hand halfway to the bedside table before giving up. “My laptop,” she commanded.  
  
Evelynn got up and pulled open the drawer to find the battered computer. Dr. Blaylock rasped instructions, prompting Evelynn to sign in and dig through her hidden files. There was one labeled ‘FINAL.’ Evelynn noticed the date. It had been created three years ago, but had been updated recently.  
  
“Open it,” the woman insisted.  
  
Double clicking on the PDF, a familiar application form Dox had created popped up. There was a picture though, which Dr. Blaylock rarely included. It was of a girl in her early teens, judging by the amount of baby fat still in her face, posed for a school photo in a uniform. Her hair was the color of wet sand, stringy and dry. It would’ve hung over her face like a curtain if she hadn’t braided some of it back. Her smile spoke of her good nature.  
  
Evelynn gave a quick glance at Dr. Blaylock—she had never sent in a child applicant before—but then she noticed the name: Jaclyn Smith. Evelynn gave Dr. Blaylock a double-take, now seeing the girl’s nose on the woman’s face.  
  
“Your granddaughter,” said Evelynn.  
  
It had been a long time since Evelynn felt her powers as a Guardian at work. It wasn’t like Swan Princess’s powers at all, which were showy and dramatic. Her abilities as a Guardian worked quietly, providing her with visions and knowledge, so when she looked at Jaclyn’s file…she knew. She just…knew. She didn’t even need to look through the rest of the application. This was the Chosen One for the Rabbit Miraculous. After all these years, she had finally been found, and she had been right there the whole time. Evelynn began to tear up.  
  
Dr. Blaylock regarded Evelynn with confusion until realization dawned to smooth her face.  
  
“You’re the Guardian.”  
  
Evelynn glanced up, terrified. She wiped her eyes. “I-I—“  
  
“Smart,” the woman decided with a curt nod of approval. She apparently didn’t have time to be hurt by Evelynn’s lie. “So Jaclyn will work, then?”  
  
“…Yes.”  
  
Dr. Blaylock heaved a sigh, her body shaking from the exertion. “I suspected as much. I hope you can understand why I waited to submit her name until I had no other choice. But it’s always been her, hasn’t it?”  
  
“Yes. That’s why no one else would work. She simply needed to come of age.” It sounded terrible, but it was true. You needed to be ten or older to wield a Miraculous, otherwise it just wouldn’t work.  
  
“I’ve already ensured that she receives the Rabbit Miraculous after my passing. Mimmi will explain her mission to retrieve the Swan Miraculous.”  
  
Evelynn scanned the room at the mention of the Kwami, even though she knew the little rabbit creature wasn’t there. “Where is Mimmi?”  
  
“I’ve put my watch someplace safe until it can be transferred to Jaclyn.”  
  
“Are you sure? I can give it to—”  
  
“My thoughts on you have not changed,” Dr. Blaylock explained, words slicing despite her frailty. “You lost the Swan Miraculous, so you have lost my trust.”  
  
“It wasn’t my fault!”  
  
“Whether you want to believe it or not…You’ve been compromised.”  
  
Evelynn found herself without words because, as much as it pained her to admit it, Dr. Blaylock wasn’t wrong. Evelynn was compromised. She’d been compromised since the very beginning. She was never going to tell anyone that it was her grandfather who was behind everything, even though she wanted to stop him. Any time she contemplated it, her mind would conjure up horrifying images of the elderly man being hauled off to prison. She couldn’t handle that. It was like Diego with his grandma—her grandfather was the only family she had left in the world. She couldn’t lose him.  
  
“I don’t want you interacting with my granddaughter unless you have no other choice,” Dr. Blaylock explained. “You will only put her in danger. And, without the Swan Miraculous, you cannot protect her.”  
  
These words were a lot softer, a gentle reminder more than a harsh rebuke. Evelynn wanted to rage against them, but it was difficult to get angry at the truth.  
  
“You love her very much, don’t you?” Evelynn said instead.  
  
Here Dr. Blaylock turned away and looked out the window. The sky was blue, but faded, like a worn jean jacket. “As you can imagine, my children weren’t very happy when I started to travel again…but Jennifer let me have tea with Jaclyn whenever I was in town. She is the most fascinating child—brave and forgiving and willing to make sacrifices. The last time we met she even skipped a surfing competition to be with me. And the last thing she told me—the last thing she will ever tell me—was that she loved me.”  
  
“…Her mom won’t let her visit?”  
  
Dr. Blaylock’s sunken eyes roved back to Evelynn. “Her mom doesn’t know. No one does.”  
  
“What!?” Evelynn half-rose from her seat, Dr. Blaylock’s computer almost sliding off her lap. She sat back down again to save it. “Why would you—?”  
  
“I don’t want their pity. And I don’t want to bring them pain.” The woman slipped down in her bed, her body spent. Evelynn could see now how much this conversation had taken out of her. She had been using all her strength. “I’ve done enough,” she murmured.  
  
Evelynn knew she was losing Dr. Blaylock to blissful sleep, so she hurried to put her thoughts in order. “If that is how you feel, then fine, but no one should have to die alone. I’ve seen it too often. So I’m going to visit you as often as I can from now on, whether you like it or not.”  
  
Dr. Blaylock’s lips twitched. “You sound like my granddaughter…” she managed before her eyes slid shut and her breathing became heavy.  
  
Evelynn carefully put Dr. Blaylock’s laptop away and then held the woman’s jaundiced hands. She thought of her grandfather and how much she loved him. She thought of Marta and her advanced Alzheimer’s. She thought of the past twelve years and how time had slipped away. And she remained like that, as if deep in prayer, until the sky tinged orange and a nurse came in to quietly let her know that visiting hours were over.  
  
It was time to go.


End file.
